23:30 Local Time, Timber, Canopy. 97th Day, 231st Year
Clovis settles into his watch, trying to stay alert. ooc: give me a notice check, please.
Blendin, Jay and Gardner approach a large hollowed stump, with rough wooden steps leading down.Above the dugout entrance, a heavy wooden sign hangs with a crude but surprisingly accurate rendering of a fog shark in a nightcap.He is also holding a heavy pottery mug in his fin, so the artist clearly was willing to take some liberties.
The interior of the Sleepy Fog Shark Inn is musty but warmed by a open trench of glowing coals in the middle of the room, and smells of smoke and orcish lager.Most those inside are human males, although you see two orcs sitting together at a table in the corner, and a single slender blonde barmaid.No one pays particular attention to your arrival.The evening’s entertainment, if it is to be called such, appears to be an arm wrestling contest.You see three hulking men standing around a small table shouting encouragement, where two men of equal size, stripped to the waist, are grunting in exertion while they grapple in honorable battle.Wagers are passing hands at the nearby tables, adding to the general cacophony of the small space.
Gardner approaches the tavernkeeper, a man thin as a rail and with a long wispy beard, and secures your room for the evening.He informs you that the evening meal, if you wish to partake, is a “skyler stew,” common code for a pot that has probably been brewing slowly for the past year or so.They also have a few barrels orcish lager, as well as a selection of distilled alcohols.
They are located through a root-lined archway, dug into the earth and braced with rough timber.The door and lock are solid enough, and you feel that you will not be disturbed unless by a particularly industrious assailant.The interior of your room is floored with fresh greenery, and rope hammocks hang from the crossbeams.
-------------
ooc: Jay, I hope you don’t mind, I moved you to the tavern.I imagine that you and gardner may be ready for bed again, but whatever is your preference, of course.You won’t suffer fatigue for a little while, either way.Blendin is probably well rested now, but if he has to do a whole shift in a few hours, might want some shut-eye too.
In response to some queries on the subject, you’re vigor rolls to withstand the cold are being taken care of “behind the screen” with a great deal of success I might add (much to my chagrin).I compressed some rolls for sanity’s sake, but everyone is hanging in there, just like with voidglow and boredom rolls.This world is full of hazards you guys keep dancing around.
As far as posting goes, I have been thrilled with the posting rate from everyone – frankly I was worried I was the one holding up the show.No one should feel the need to post more.I aim to post about once per day.As long as people are happy with their own level of input and okay with the fact that occasionally their character may take an action that they did not explicitly agree to (like, say, Jay moving to the tavern just now), I think we are in good shape.I suspect that on occasion you guys will take me directions I didn’t anticipate as well, and am perfectly okay with the way that’s been going so far.
I certainly have appreciated you guys taking the initiative to keep things rolling and posting while I’m out of contact, so I’m going to pass out a bennie for everyone.
I think it’s appropriate (and fun) to have some characters with privy information.The crew has a loyalty to the ship and an investment in the cargo, but they’ve also just arrived at an island for the first time in 6 weeks.A bit of shore leave is probably all they are interested in for a few days.The captain, on the other hand, may have to be planning your next move, so the trade is probably his biggest concern (although he surely wants some leave as well).
Remember, Dirk’s “suggestion” that you don’t enter town with weapons is one he isn’t willing to try to enforce, unless you use them to cause trouble.Taking knives and brass knuckles, and even a hammer or belaying pin, wouldn’t be viewed as a weapon, unless of course you tried to kill someone with it.Taking a musket or an ironwood sword, however…
Gardner picks a table near the coals and orders stew and lager.
----------------------- OOC: Gardner has his dagger with him and left Fang onboard with Tooly to help watch the ship. I'll relinquish control of Fang to Tooly for his watch if its alright with the GM.
Jay left his swords in the cabin: the ironwood leaning against the wall, the short sword hidden inside Gipper's pot. ---------- Jay joins Gardner at his table and with a bowl of the stew, but orders one of the spirits rather than the lager. He discreetly observes the other inhabitants of the tavern, paying enough attention to the "entertainment" to not appear overly nosy.
The food is richly seasoned and the alcohol strong, particularly Jay’s elvish honeywine. Before long both Jay and Gardner are ready for shut-eye. Blendin remains in the hall for an hour or so more before taking a quick nap before his shift. He notes that, compared to the indifference he is shown on Shadowhaven, he is given a measure of kind deference here in the Sleepy Fog Shark. One of the large men knocks over his drink while telling a story, by accident, and prompty orders him a bottle of the finest alcohol that Milton has to offer, with an apology and a pat on the head.
The next morning, while Blendin is aboard ship on watch and Tooly catching a few quick winks, Gardner and Jay head to meet with Renault. As you walk deeper into Timber, overhanging branches from the Treeline shade you. This is comforting, although not as much as the tunnels of Shadowhaven.
Renault’s offices double as his home, it appears. He is wearing heavy trousers but no shirt when you arrive, and appears a bit hung over. “Alright, let’s see those papers.” He motions you over to a cluttered desk by the fire where you sit in comfortable wingback chairs. Jay tries not to damage the upholstery. Renault goes through your documents from the trade council with a few “umm-hmms” before flipping to the manifest. His eyes get wide, and he stands abruptly.
“Four Crates!? Blessed ‘mother, where did you find this!? You boys weren’t kidding when you said you have something to trade. Why, the dwarves can bring us one crate every 3 months, if that. They’re not due in for another, oh, week or so. The men could clear Round Top with these in no time, and maybe we could even get the mill back online.” He sits and clears his throat, trying to remain calm. “Now, based on what I see here, I’ll need to inspect the cargo of course, but uh, well. We pay the dwarves,” he shuffles through his papers, and presents an invoice for your inspection, “4500 for a single crate of about the same size. Assuming these are of similar quality, I’m willing to offer 15000, plus all the iceseal you can carry. And I assume you had some manner of ongoing trade arrangement in mind?”
------------ ooc: Gardner, the amount he is offering seems patently absurd, and FAR too much for this cargo. You would expect less than a third of his offer price, based on the Shadowhaven prices.
Blendin, you’ve overhead a number of things as the men got drunk(er). Of particular note is that the sawmill has been offline for a few months, since the last “shipment”. You also hear that one of the nearby wildling camps, they refer to it is “Critter City” was vacant and there were signs of an attack there, recently. This seems to make the locals nervous. Feel free to post any actions you wish to take for the remainder of the day when your shift ends, assuming that Jay relieves you. You also gained an orcish scotch that is, according to the men in the Fog Shark, just short of sex in quality.
Poor Jay, I’m always moving him around without asking. If you have a “on second thought, jay does x” please feel free to go about it. You have a few hours before you relieve Blendin.
Tooly, you can wake up and go about your business as discussed via email around noon local time. Feel free to detail what you do “for fun” during the day here, or not. I’ve made the rolls, and if you work this angle, you’ll have someone partially hooked by your next shift (though probably not as far along as you’d like). Based on experience, you assume another day will do it. You also hear that the Mill’s offline due to damaged blades and drive gears. Everyone is quite wary of talking about it in more detail around you, and while you are treated well, you get the impression that dwarves are perhaps not the favorite of the locals. If you stay in the room secured by Gardner, you’ve spent 5 cogs for the items you requested, and obtained a good bottle of dwarven brandy.
Gardner tries his best not to balk at the offered price, trying to figure out Renault's angle. He decides to indicate that he is suspicious of the high price, and then move onto to another negotiating topic to give him more time to feel Renault's intention's out.
He takes a careful look at the invoice. "Interesting," he says noncommittally. "Usually when someone offers me a price like that it means their planning to kill me, but maybe there are circumstances here on Canopy that I'm unaware of."
"Let's talk about an ongoing arrangment. Magnus Greenbottom is generously offering regular shipments of bronze tools, like these, elvish rope and spices from Shadowhaven in exchange for wood and iceseal. He would prefer an exclusive right to sell iceseal on Shadowhaven. If we can come to terms I have a pre-signed contract which we can complete."
------------------------------ OOC: Trying to scan the invoice for anything interesting and to read Renault's intentions. Possibly relevant rolls - Notice 13, Streetwise 11, Persuasion 5.
Renault looks genuinely perplexed by your concern over the price. “Is the price too low? I assure you we certainly mean you no harm or even disrespect. I can not even imagine what you must go through to scrounge up that much bronze. Ever since the copper veins on Mount Ore dried up two years ago, we’ve been buying our bronze directly from dwarven salvagers, who go to great trouble to obtain and then repurpose the bronze for our needs. Perhaps you know them? That’s why the price is what it is, of course. Oh, for the old days, when copper could be pulled out of the ground and forged to our specifications. We could run both mills non-stop; but such is our fate in this world, I suppose. Luckily for you, you have a dwarf with your ship. Is it true what they say about their ability to ‘sniff’ out old bronze relics within the Shattered City?”
“As far as a regular trading arrangement, if you can guarantee regular bronze shipments, along with rope and spices, I think that planks and raw timber should be no problem. We could guarantee to supply a barrel or two of iceseal as well if that helps sweeten the pot. I must say, guaranteeing regular shipments of bronze is quite a bold move, and we will hold you to it. Fail to hold up your end, and we will file a breach of contract complaint with the Council. As for exclusive rights, I’m afraid that I would need to present your case to Magistrate Hooper and the rest of the town council. We only have one other regular iceseal contract with the dwarves for distribution elsewhere; granting exclusive rights, even just for Shadowhaven, is beyond my abilities. But given the unique nature of the cargo you are providing, I think we might be able to come to an arrangement. I’ll be happy to review your contract?”
He extends his hand, palm up. -------- ooc: Neither Gardner or Jay have heard anything about copper veins going dry. In fact, to the best of your knowledge copper goods are just as plentiful as always, and provided by the dwarves from their various mines, including Mount Ore.
You are both reasonably certain he is being honest and non-threatening with you, although he may be omitting some details as regards the specifics of the trade deal.
Jay makes a snorting sound. He then leans over and whispers in Garner's ear, "Looks like the dwarves have been setting things up for a cozy business deal themselves. I'm sure Magnus won't mind taking advantage of their hard work."
"Magnus has an extensive trade network and has ready access to bronze. We'd be pleased to offer them to you at that price. As to the exclusive right, Magnus is well known on Shadowhaven and throughout the Skies as a shrewd but fair trader. He can guarantee shipments of bronze and is very interested in offering iceseal in Shadowhaven. Though our ship is small, his fleet is large and I doubt we'll have any problems meeting the terms of the contract," Gardner hands the contract template to Renault. "I would welcome the chance to present our case to the magistrate or have you present it on our behalf."
Renault mumbles as he reads over the document. "Very Well. We will offload our goods from your ship tomorrow, and consider that portion of our bargain done. Your payment will take some time to assemble, but I forsee no issues there. Certainly by the end of the week. As for the trading agreement, I think it best, of course, that you make your own case before the council. There is a council meeting in three days. I will have your proposal discussed and added to the agenda. Please bring your entire crew to the meeting, we like to know the sort of people we are dealing with. I can arrange for guards to look after your vessel to assure nothing happens to it while we meet. I will keep this copy of the contract to show the council in private before our open meeting." Renault stands, and draws a bone knife from his belt. He slashes a small gash in his palm, and then offers the knife to you. "Do we have an agreement then? 15000 plus the iceseal for your bronze?" Blood drips from his palm onto the table in front of you.
--------- ooc: Assuming you agree to this deal, feel free to take any actions for the next couple days before the meeting. I will start a new thread with the meeting either late tonight or tomorrow.
OOC: An email discussion over the trade deal that I thought worth showing the group.
JWW: I am personally troubled by the idea of offloading the goods a week before payment is received, but perhaps thats common practice and Gardner is being too suspicious for a trade council regulated activity. Would Gardner find this troublesome?
BR: Although you believe Renault is being honest, Gardner might be wary of this deal for many reasons. There is the huge overpayment you expect to receive due to their being bamboozled by the dwarves. They might be unhappy if they realized this before your transaction was complete, so giving up your asset before payment could put you over a barrel. On top of that, this is a post-apoc world, so people don't typically give up their trading asset until they at least see payment. If they screwed you over the TC would probably step in - eventually, but it might be too late for you.
JWW: I'm thinking of offering as a counterproposal that the goods will be delivered simultaneously with payment right before we leave port (that way we don't have 15000 cogs on us in port and they don't get the tools until we have payment). Also, is the iceseal he's offering a full load of cargo?
BR: A reasonable counterproposal which he would consider. The iceseal is a full load for the ship, 8 kegs worth. That amount of iceseal is readily available in port (iceseal is a tree resin they get as part of the lumber milling process. Frankly, they have more of it than they know what to do with. It's value to them is to line their homes as fire retardant, but to skyship pilots, particularly those flying combat ships or those who fly the dwarven territories near the burning sea, it value is huge. Figure 1 barrel per 10 toughness points of ship coverage (so about 1000 cogs per barrel when sold on Canopy, but roughly double that value on Shadowhaven). In effect, you're being paid a factor of five more than expected. There really isn't any other asset to offer you that is worth more per size. They have lumber, ice, and skyler pelts for making altitude suits and the like.
JWW: If not since I want to return with a full load I'm thinking we something like we sign a contract and made the blood pact now for full performance when payment is available, but we offer one crate immediately in exchange for a letter of credit from Renault drawn on final payment that would allow us to barter for other goods to make sure we have a full load when we return. Alternatively, if the iceseal isn't a full cargo we would accept a lower payment in exchange for a full load of goods if Gardner thought it profitable. If Gardner doesn't think there's anything weird about delivering hte goods now and waiting for payment then I won't worry about this and we can move on.
Feel free to make whatever Streetwise or other rolls Gardner needs to assess whether the deal seems off. If he rolls really poorly he'll spend a benny to try again.
BR: Your new streetwise roll is an 11, with no bennie spent (quite a good roll). Getting a letter of credit from Renault might be seen as an insult, his word and blood pact being seen as worth more than paper. He will understand wariness to receive payment before delivering goods, but making him promise in effect twice to pay might draw some ire.
After some discussion, He offers the following proposal. They load half the kegs today for 2 of your crates, leaving the other kegs on the dock by the ship. Your cash payment (the holdup on their end) will be assembled before the remaining kegs are loaded, and the last 2 crates offloaded. He offers guards for your ship to protect your mutual assets from plundering, and has assured you any theft will be seen as their loss, not yours (and will not effect your payment total). Similarly, any damage to your ship would be repaired and/or paid to you at your preference. Protection of ships by the locals in "major" ports is not an uncommon practice - if ports gain a reputation for thievery, there is far too much to lose from wary traders (and as such theft is typically a capital offense). This is all contingent on him seeing the cargo, which he intends to do immediately following this meeting.
ooc: Someohow I completely missed the new chapter posting. Any chance you could make a final comment on the finalized post when you create a new one. I will try to catch up with what I missed, and sorry, for not playing my character.
OOC: re: Legal-Right: Fortunately, nothing major involving Blendin (or Tooly, or Jay) has happened except what we've done ourselves, so you can catch right up. If you hadn't said anything, I'd have assumed Blendin was acting via email like me. I'd half expected to be waiting for him to relieve Tooly on watch and he'd gone haring off to the woods to meet some other wildlings or something.
ooc: sure, I'll put a "thread closed" comment in whenever I plan to jump to a new one. Feel free to post whatever actions you're up to - I'll be posting something more "collective" shortly it looks like, since you all have a meeting to go to. Fun Times!
Remember, I'm going to compress time a bit now and again, so if you don't give me explicit (I wanna do X in my free time) I'll have you do something to fill the gap, but I'd rather use your input. For instance, Blendin, you might wanna follow up on some of my comments above in this thread between now and the meeting.
Notice check: 4
ReplyDeleteTooly awaits developments, cursing the cold, though he's warm enough in his layers of hide.
Gardner picks a table near the coals and orders stew and lager.
ReplyDelete-----------------------
OOC: Gardner has his dagger with him and left Fang onboard with Tooly to help watch the ship. I'll relinquish control of Fang to Tooly for his watch if its alright with the GM.
Jay left his swords in the cabin: the ironwood leaning against the wall, the short sword hidden inside Gipper's pot.
ReplyDelete----------
Jay joins Gardner at his table and with a bowl of the stew, but orders one of the spirits rather than the lager. He discreetly observes the other inhabitants of the tavern, paying enough attention to the "entertainment" to not appear overly nosy.
The food is richly seasoned and the alcohol strong, particularly Jay’s elvish honeywine. Before long both Jay and Gardner are ready for shut-eye. Blendin remains in the hall for an hour or so more before taking a quick nap before his shift. He notes that, compared to the indifference he is shown on Shadowhaven, he is given a measure of kind deference here in the Sleepy Fog Shark. One of the large men knocks over his drink while telling a story, by accident, and prompty orders him a bottle of the finest alcohol that Milton has to offer, with an apology and a pat on the head.
ReplyDeleteThe next morning, while Blendin is aboard ship on watch and Tooly catching a few quick winks, Gardner and Jay head to meet with Renault. As you walk deeper into Timber, overhanging branches from the Treeline shade you. This is comforting, although not as much as the tunnels of Shadowhaven.
Renault’s offices double as his home, it appears. He is wearing heavy trousers but no shirt when you arrive, and appears a bit hung over. “Alright, let’s see those papers.” He motions you over to a cluttered desk by the fire where you sit in comfortable wingback chairs. Jay tries not to damage the upholstery. Renault goes through your documents from the trade council with a few “umm-hmms” before flipping to the manifest. His eyes get wide, and he stands abruptly.
“Four Crates!? Blessed ‘mother, where did you find this!? You boys weren’t kidding when you said you have something to trade. Why, the dwarves can bring us one crate every 3 months, if that. They’re not due in for another, oh, week or so. The men could clear Round Top with these in no time, and maybe we could even get the mill back online.” He sits and clears his throat, trying to remain calm. “Now, based on what I see here, I’ll need to inspect the cargo of course, but uh, well. We pay the dwarves,” he shuffles through his papers, and presents an invoice for your inspection, “4500 for a single crate of about the same size. Assuming these are of similar quality, I’m willing to offer 15000, plus all the iceseal you can carry. And I assume you had some manner of ongoing trade arrangement in mind?”
------------
ooc: Gardner, the amount he is offering seems patently absurd, and FAR too much for this cargo. You would expect less than a third of his offer price, based on the Shadowhaven prices.
Blendin, you’ve overhead a number of things as the men got drunk(er). Of particular note is that the sawmill has been offline for a few months, since the last “shipment”. You also hear that one of the nearby wildling camps, they refer to it is “Critter City” was vacant and there were signs of an attack there, recently. This seems to make the locals nervous. Feel free to post any actions you wish to take for the remainder of the day when your shift ends, assuming that Jay relieves you. You also gained an orcish scotch that is, according to the men in the Fog Shark, just short of sex in quality.
Poor Jay, I’m always moving him around without asking. If you have a “on second thought, jay does x” please feel free to go about it. You have a few hours before you relieve Blendin.
Tooly, you can wake up and go about your business as discussed via email around noon local time. Feel free to detail what you do “for fun” during the day here, or not. I’ve made the rolls, and if you work this angle, you’ll have someone partially hooked by your next shift (though probably not as far along as you’d like). Based on experience, you assume another day will do it. You also hear that the Mill’s offline due to damaged blades and drive gears. Everyone is quite wary of talking about it in more detail around you, and while you are treated well, you get the impression that dwarves are perhaps not the favorite of the locals. If you stay in the room secured by Gardner, you’ve spent 5 cogs for the items you requested, and obtained a good bottle of dwarven brandy.
Gardner tries his best not to balk at the offered price, trying to figure out Renault's angle. He decides to indicate that he is suspicious of the high price, and then move onto to another negotiating topic to give him more time to feel Renault's intention's out.
ReplyDeleteHe takes a careful look at the invoice. "Interesting," he says noncommittally. "Usually when someone offers me a price like that it means their planning to kill me, but maybe there are circumstances here on Canopy that I'm unaware of."
"Let's talk about an ongoing arrangment. Magnus Greenbottom is generously offering regular shipments of bronze tools, like these, elvish rope and spices from Shadowhaven in exchange for wood and iceseal. He would prefer an exclusive right to sell iceseal on Shadowhaven. If we can come to terms I have a pre-signed contract which we can complete."
------------------------------
OOC: Trying to scan the invoice for anything interesting and to read Renault's intentions. Possibly relevant rolls - Notice 13, Streetwise 11, Persuasion 5.
Renault looks genuinely perplexed by your concern over the price. “Is the price too low? I assure you we certainly mean you no harm or even disrespect. I can not even imagine what you must go through to scrounge up that much bronze. Ever since the copper veins on Mount Ore dried up two years ago, we’ve been buying our bronze directly from dwarven salvagers, who go to great trouble to obtain and then repurpose the bronze for our needs. Perhaps you know them? That’s why the price is what it is, of course. Oh, for the old days, when copper could be pulled out of the ground and forged to our specifications. We could run both mills non-stop; but such is our fate in this world, I suppose. Luckily for you, you have a dwarf with your ship. Is it true what they say about their ability to ‘sniff’ out old bronze relics within the Shattered City?”
ReplyDelete“As far as a regular trading arrangement, if you can guarantee regular bronze shipments, along with rope and spices, I think that planks and raw timber should be no problem. We could guarantee to supply a barrel or two of iceseal as well if that helps sweeten the pot. I must say, guaranteeing regular shipments of bronze is quite a bold move, and we will hold you to it. Fail to hold up your end, and we will file a breach of contract complaint with the Council. As for exclusive rights, I’m afraid that I would need to present your case to Magistrate Hooper and the rest of the town council. We only have one other regular iceseal contract with the dwarves for distribution elsewhere; granting exclusive rights, even just for Shadowhaven, is beyond my abilities. But given the unique nature of the cargo you are providing, I think we might be able to come to an arrangement. I’ll be happy to review your contract?”
He extends his hand, palm up.
--------
ooc: Neither Gardner or Jay have heard anything about copper veins going dry. In fact, to the best of your knowledge copper goods are just as plentiful as always, and provided by the dwarves from their various mines, including Mount Ore.
You are both reasonably certain he is being honest and non-threatening with you, although he may be omitting some details as regards the specifics of the trade deal.
Jay makes a snorting sound. He then leans over and whispers in Garner's ear, "Looks like the dwarves have been setting things up for a cozy business deal themselves. I'm sure Magnus won't mind taking advantage of their hard work."
ReplyDeleteRenault does not appear to have heard Jay's comment.
ReplyDelete"Magnus has an extensive trade network and has ready access to bronze. We'd be pleased to offer them to you at that price. As to the exclusive right, Magnus is well known on Shadowhaven and throughout the Skies as a shrewd but fair trader. He can guarantee shipments of bronze and is very interested in offering iceseal in Shadowhaven. Though our ship is small, his fleet is large and I doubt we'll have any problems meeting the terms of the contract," Gardner hands the contract template to Renault. "I would welcome the chance to present our case to the magistrate or have you present it on our behalf."
ReplyDeleteRenault mumbles as he reads over the document. "Very Well. We will offload our goods from your ship tomorrow, and consider that portion of our bargain done. Your payment will take some time to assemble, but I forsee no issues there. Certainly by the end of the week. As for the trading agreement, I think it best, of course, that you make your own case before the council. There is a council meeting in three days. I will have your proposal discussed and added to the agenda. Please bring your entire crew to the meeting, we like to know the sort of people we are dealing with. I can arrange for guards to look after your vessel to assure nothing happens to it while we meet. I will keep this copy of the contract to show the council in private before our open meeting." Renault stands, and draws a bone knife from his belt. He slashes a small gash in his palm, and then offers the knife to you. "Do we have an agreement then? 15000 plus the iceseal for your bronze?" Blood drips from his palm onto the table in front of you.
ReplyDelete---------
ooc: Assuming you agree to this deal, feel free to take any actions for the next couple days before the meeting. I will start a new thread with the meeting either late tonight or tomorrow.
OOC: An email discussion over the trade deal that I thought worth showing the group.
ReplyDeleteJWW: I am personally troubled by the idea of offloading the goods a week before payment is received, but perhaps thats common practice and Gardner is being too suspicious for a trade council regulated activity. Would Gardner find this troublesome?
BR: Although you believe Renault is being honest, Gardner might be wary of this deal for many reasons. There is the huge overpayment you expect to receive due to their being bamboozled by the dwarves. They might be unhappy if they realized this before your transaction was complete, so giving up your asset before payment could put you over a barrel. On top of that, this is a post-apoc world, so people don't typically give up their trading asset until they at least see payment. If they screwed you over the TC would probably step in - eventually, but it might be too late for you.
JWW: I'm thinking of offering as a counterproposal that the goods will be delivered simultaneously with payment right before we leave port (that way we don't have 15000 cogs on us in port and they don't get the tools until we have payment). Also, is the iceseal he's offering a full load of cargo?
BR: A reasonable counterproposal which he would consider. The iceseal is a full load for the ship, 8 kegs worth. That amount of iceseal is readily available in port (iceseal is a tree resin they get as part of the lumber milling process. Frankly, they have more of it than they know what to do with. It's value to them is to line their homes as fire retardant, but to skyship pilots, particularly those flying combat ships or those who fly the dwarven territories near the burning sea, it value is huge. Figure 1 barrel per 10 toughness points of ship coverage (so about 1000 cogs per barrel when sold on Canopy, but roughly double that value on Shadowhaven). In effect, you're being paid a factor of five more than expected. There really isn't any other asset to offer you that is worth more per size. They have lumber, ice, and skyler pelts for making altitude suits and the like.
OOC cont:
ReplyDeleteJWW: If not since I want to return with a full load I'm thinking we something like we sign a contract and made the blood pact now for full performance when payment is available, but we offer one crate immediately in exchange for a letter of credit from Renault drawn on final payment that would allow us to barter for other goods to make sure we have a full load when we return. Alternatively, if the iceseal isn't a full cargo we would accept a lower payment in exchange for a full load of goods if Gardner thought it profitable. If Gardner doesn't think there's anything weird about delivering hte goods now and waiting for payment then I won't worry about this and we can move on.
Feel free to make whatever Streetwise or other rolls Gardner needs to assess whether the deal seems off. If he rolls really poorly he'll spend a benny to try again.
BR: Your new streetwise roll is an 11, with no bennie spent (quite a good roll). Getting a letter of credit from Renault might be seen as an insult, his word and blood pact being seen as worth more than paper. He will understand wariness to receive payment before delivering goods, but making him promise in effect twice to pay might draw some ire.
After some discussion, He offers the following proposal. They load half the kegs today for 2 of your crates, leaving the other kegs on the dock by the ship. Your cash payment (the holdup on their end) will be assembled before the remaining kegs are loaded, and the last 2 crates offloaded. He offers guards for your ship to protect your mutual assets from plundering, and has assured you any theft will be seen as their loss, not yours (and will not effect your payment total). Similarly, any damage to your ship would be repaired and/or paid to you at your preference. Protection of ships by the locals in "major" ports is not an uncommon practice - if ports gain a reputation for thievery, there is far too much to lose from wary traders (and as such theft is typically a capital offense). This is all contingent on him seeing the cargo, which he intends to do immediately following this meeting.
ooc: Someohow I completely missed the new chapter posting. Any chance you could make a final comment on the finalized post when you create a new one. I will try to catch up with what I missed, and sorry, for not playing my character.
ReplyDeleteGardner nods in agreement, then picks up the knife and cuts into his own palm.
ReplyDeleteOOC: re: Legal-Right:
ReplyDeleteFortunately, nothing major involving Blendin (or Tooly, or Jay) has happened except what we've done ourselves, so you can catch right up.
If you hadn't said anything, I'd have assumed Blendin was acting via email like me. I'd half expected to be waiting for him to relieve Tooly on watch and he'd gone haring off to the woods to meet some other wildlings or something.
ooc: sure, I'll put a "thread closed" comment in whenever I plan to jump to a new one. Feel free to post whatever actions you're up to - I'll be posting something more "collective" shortly it looks like, since you all have a meeting to go to. Fun Times!
ReplyDeleteRemember, I'm going to compress time a bit now and again, so if you don't give me explicit (I wanna do X in my free time) I'll have you do something to fill the gap, but I'd rather use your input. For instance, Blendin, you might wanna follow up on some of my comments above in this thread between now and the meeting.
Thread closing. New one to open shortly.
ReplyDelete