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Re: To Brant and Back (Chapter 6)

Post by Longman »

Elven hoods, noted.

The driver runs often between Nore and Red Oak. He knows who you are. Word has spread, to him at least. You can ask him about it if you want. No need to repeat Kilian's excellent tale - I can imagine just fine. Danys just wants stuff to tell his coach-driver mates in exchange for beers, anyway.

Rillow Ember (Female, M5, Sage 7) is a kind of cultural ambassador attached to the University of Brant. Other elves are also there. There is an elvish military / political ambassador as well, who is male, and his entourage, in the Palace. (No name yet). If you head straight for the University or the Palace, you should be OK. They are near one another in the Old Town. Most stuff you want to organize could be done there.

The rest of Brant is a potential adventure site and may well contain lots of crime and other happenings if you dig around, or even just wander the streets. Tiana mostly just remembers it smells pretty bad and she came through quite fast for that exact reason. 60k human people plus no plumbing? Not what a high-born elf likes to be around.

(Background check - have Freya and Kilian been here before? I always imagined Kilian coming from the north and meeting Freya in Nore or somewhere like that. Where is Freya's Dad's business?).

Incidentally - a bit what your hired coach looks like only yours is way more shabby - you guys probably have cabin fever kinda bad after sitting together in and on that for 2 weeks.
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Woe
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Re: To Brant and Back (Chapter 6)

Post by Woe »

(Background check - have Freya and Kilian been here before? I always imagined Kilian coming from the north and meeting Freya in Nore or somewhere like that. Where is Freya's Dad's business?).
No idea. Kilian came from the north, but I imagined him as wandering around a bit taking odd jobs or mercenary work or whatever wanderers do. No objections if he's never been here before. Freya's dad's business is in elfland. I was thinking him more as a shopkeeper merchant opposed to a caravanning merchant. Maybe she came by here as an elfling a few times with the rare trip east, or maybe from elfland over to Red Oak. Let's play Tiana as either here a few times at the university, or one extended stay at the university? As for Talin, "gosh, I've never been farther than Nore before!"

Off to the university! I'd love to see Kilian, Talin, and Freya reading books! :)

After intros with Rillow Ember, first order of business will be finding someone to work the wyvern hide into armor. That will likely take the most time, and I'm sure Danys won't want to stay here forever.
Freya HP 24/24 AC 16 (17 two weapons)
Kilian HP 20/20 AC 19 (18 no shield)
Talin HP 29 AC 16
Tiana HP 11 AC 12 SP 8/8
Fido HP 9/9 AC 16
Anna HP 12/12 AC 15 (19 defensively)
Bruce HP 20/20 AC 16 (15 no shield)

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Re: To Brant and Back (Chapter 6)

Post by Longman »

Sat July 11 - a warm clear evening as you enter Brant. There's no entry system here so you can come as go as you please.

A lot of Brant is very 'modern' inside, and the buildings are all half-timbered and look like this. You haven't seen many like this in Red Oak.
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The University is a a collection of older stone buildings near the Palace and a large cathedral, one of several in the city. You make your way up the hill towards this area, through the lower town and the smell is indeed pretty bad, and so is the noise.

Image

After that you finally meet with Rillow. She is very friendly and enthusiastic about what you have managed to accomplish, and makes a fuss of you at a large banquet. (If Tiana had sent the letter to her by regular mail, she would have known you were coming. Otherwise, it's all prepared in haste as she didn't know you were coming til you showed up).

Image

I know you want to do the armour thing straight away, but you should talk to her first, seeing as you are staying with her. I'll start with a few basics -

- The Caledydore wood you found was underestimated on value - it is worth 8gp a pound so if you have 100 pounds, that's an 800 gp straight away, straight away. She'd love more.

- Boneset is a major find. It no longer grows anywhere in the elf lands and indeed is extremely hard to grow. She offers Tiana training and lots of spells all the way up to 5th level (her own level) in return for giving her this herb. She will also see about having some 'healing' potions made, but you will need to wait until the plants are much larger. Again, she'd love more. Do you tell her about the suspected druid living at Lone Island?

(Note - healing potions in the elvish context mean herbal / alchemical brews that speed that natural progress of healing as if a successful healing roll had been made. They won't make you jump back up on your feet again.)

- I also need to know what you are telling her about the skull cups, and Kilian's dream, etc. She might know something about this. You think the gems have an estimated value of 400gp if you remove them.

Your other treasure is worth this:

- unopened cask – worth 300gp. Magically preserved.
- silver plate, 50gp
- a fewye olde Boldenwald coines – 10 gp
-16 doses of wyvern venom – 400 gold pieces (25gp each).
- 200 gp = 200 gp
- 300 sp = 30 gp
- 12.5pp = 125gp
- Mound treasure - 100gp

The Arnica and tenderease have no particular value as they already grow in elf lands. Rillow has no clue at all what the goblin oil is for. She thinks the poo is probably the excrement of a particular type of giant spider, which the goblins farm, and then harvest, It would cause great pain if mixed with water and put on a weapon or a missile. This is usually done by clever, well-organised goblins. She thinks maybe the goblins in your area brought it from some others, further east.

Anyway that's 2415, plus 2 for the wine bottles. Do you show her the jester's cap and so forth? If you don't sell the skull gems, you get 2017.
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Re: To Brant and Back (Chapter 6)

Post by Woe »

Are you ok if I play Rillow as the elven equivalent of Emlin? She is Tiana's confidante and/or mentor, she's trusted by the elves, etc. It'll let me do a cheesy "Tiana tells her what Talin shared with Emlin" handwave as well as set up a bit of parity between what the elves know and what the humans know. I'll assume a 'yes' and if not, I'll rewrite all of this.

Tiana sent a letter to Rillow to expect the party on Sunday. However, they didn't make the last trip to Boldenwald to drop off the barrel of wine because both Freya and Talin dipped into the wine fund. As a result, the party left earlier than expected and here they are! She'll need to prepare the banquet in haste anyway. Tiana apologizes to Rillow and if it puts her out, Tiana offers that the group can stay in one of the local inns.

Tiana tells Rillow what Talin shared with Emlin. :D She will mention the suspected druid in the forest, but can't state very well why it's a druid. Mainly, it's because the forest animals around were kinder to the party and definitely indications that the goblins were not welcome in the area. Because the party didn't meet the druid, there's not much to tell. She will relay the warning that the 'druid' gave them.

They'll share the story about the skull cups, in case there is something magical or diabolical about them. They'll likely strip them for gems but it does depend on the story.

Does she know anything about the runes?

Wow! Maybe the party's next foray will be a logging + gardening trip.
Freya HP 24/24 AC 16 (17 two weapons)
Kilian HP 20/20 AC 19 (18 no shield)
Talin HP 29 AC 16
Tiana HP 11 AC 12 SP 8/8
Fido HP 9/9 AC 16
Anna HP 12/12 AC 15 (19 defensively)
Bruce HP 20/20 AC 16 (15 no shield)

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Re: To Brant and Back (Chapter 6)

Post by Longman »

No problemo. You can tell Rillow and her consorts as much as you told Emlin.

Rillow herself is quite old, and a bit school-teacherly. Not so hot any more. Some of her consorts (all female) are...younger. And more lithe. Kilian is unaffected by their charms but I wouldn't vouch for Talin.

First of all...Rillow Ember can detect all kinds of magic, as we established here.

viewtopic.php?f=25&t=1158&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&start=280

It's quite a hard spell (3rd level). The day after you arrive, after everyone has done church-type things at one of the University chapels, she casts it on the assembled loot you guys have brought before her.

'Oh, well I can tell you straightaways that this stuff here is magical, but not in any important sense,' she says of the jester's cap and the leather belt. 'A spell has been put upon them to make them last longer, and that is all. Whichever poor fellow they dressed up in this way, they must not have liked him very much. Chained up forever, dressed as a fool, with nothing but a cask of sherry, you say. Likewise, the sherry also has a spell to preserve it, which is why it has lasted for so long now and still tastes fine.'

Of the skulls: 'Ah, well these are most definitely magical, and I shall not be taking a drink from any of them, myself. I think what you have found is something that should not be dabbled with, at all.

'When the sylvan people first taught magical ways to the druids, one of the great arts they passed on was the ability to transform into a token animal. It is the art of Ilcruthy, of changing one's shape. But the transformations could only ever be temporary, and a powerful user of magic could last no more than a few hours in the form of an animal, and could never achieve the half-state of the cruthy themselves.

But then, centuries before the goblins came, when human magic was at its peak, the human wizards got greedy. They took the power of transformation from the druids, and meddled with it, making it a part of their own magical system. They developed spells to draw power from outside the world, from other planes of existence, instead of using the normal stuff of the world, like good magic should do. And by doing so, they developed a means for people to transform themselves into animals for much longer periods, and to change back and forth at will. And, they could also achieve the half-state: half-person, half animal. But it came at a cost. We do not call such creatures 'Cruthy' any more. We call them lycanthropes, because the "wolf-man" is the most commonly known, although there are many types, as you have found yourself. And as far as I know it is a most terrible disease, and the transformations are involuntary, unless controlled by magic or herbs.

'So these skulls you have found, I would take them to be the skulls of 12 different types of animal, and I suspect that they were the center of a ritual, for turning ordinary folk into lycanthropes, of all the different kinds. And my advice is that we should pick the gems from them, and burn the skulls afterwards, and if you ever find anything similar you should do likewise. There may still be people out there who know how to use magic such as this.'

'As to the name Black Vale' - here she takes down a crumbly old book called Antienete Playce Names of Brand and Voll - there appear to be many possible places that could be, and none of them are at all close by to Red Oak. I am sorry. There is a limit to my prodigious knowledge...'

On Kilian's dream, she is most interested. 'I hardly know what to say,' she says. 'Truly you must have a great and spiritual nature within you for to have had such a dream. It would seem that you have gone back in time, many hundreds of years, to the point where the cult of the lycanthropes was first beginning. And somehow, you have been responsible for disrupting it. But that hardly seems possible. Perhaps it is no more than an unusually vivid and prescient and intelligent dream.'

Kilian gets the strong feeling she means 'unusually vivid and intelligent for a dwarf' but isn't saying it.

Finally, she examines the healing potions and says, 'well, these might heal you but they might make you as sick as you have ever been, too. I can try to work out what ingredients have gone into these, but it may no longer be possible. The most important thing is that someone knows how to make these. And if my guess is correct, it is the same person who is making the potions that allow these 'Nisha' to deal with the worst effects of their disease. If you find that person, you will find the heart of the Nisha cult. I wish you all the best in that.'

All of that has taken most of the afternoon. What are you going to do on the Monday? Your cart driver has taken off to immerse himself in "the festivities", aka beer. There's some great brewers in Brant...just saying.
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Re: To Brant and Back (Chapter 6)

Post by Woe »

"Many thanks, Eldarin Emberisti. Once again your knowledge has shined light into the darkness." Tiana says respectfully. "My colleagues would like to sell some of this treasure to traveling guildsmen. Do you have any recommendations as to honest merchants and craftsmen?"

The party will split up for a bit, vowing to meet at (insert nearby pub) after two hours. Nobody is carrying any treasure; at most just enough coin for a proper meal, drink, and bath. Kilian warns everyone about pickpockets and street urchins.

Freya and Kilian will attempt to go find an artisan leatherworker, starting with recommendations from Rillow. Kilian is going with the experience of how he wants the hide armor to lay out on the body, which areas need the most protection, which areas need the most flexibility. He's not a leatherworker but he knows metal armor, and if the leatherworker passes Kilian's judgment then he gets the job. Freya is going to ensure his pricing is fair.

Assuming they have free time and it makes sense, they'll look for a set of merchants to unload the treasure. They won't sell today. They'll just get a list of honest merchants. When they do sell later this week, they'll sell across multiple merchants.

Tiana is going to do the research thing while at the university (skill development and spell development). Talin, with nothing else to do, will wander around the better part of the city for a bit with Fido and then end up at the pub earlier than the others.
Freya HP 24/24 AC 16 (17 two weapons)
Kilian HP 20/20 AC 19 (18 no shield)
Talin HP 29 AC 16
Tiana HP 11 AC 12 SP 8/8
Fido HP 9/9 AC 16
Anna HP 12/12 AC 15 (19 defensively)
Bruce HP 20/20 AC 16 (15 no shield)

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ARMOR - Jasper Sun

Post by Longman »

"Do you have any recommendations as to honest merchants and craftsmen?"

"Well, I'd start with our own armory if I were you. It is where the boys are. Men, I beg your pardon." She means the various consorts of the male military and political ambassador to Brant, who are all located in another building nearby. "They could probably do human size, and half...I mean, dwarf size, too. Otherwise I'd try the Old Canal District for manufacturers, or the central market for goods."

I'm assuming your instructions are for the Monday morning. Freya and Talin go to the elvish armorer Jasper Sun, and talk armor.

It's been a while since Freya saw a high-born male elf and she finds Jasper and the other male elves a bit pompous and smug. He looks like this guy:
Image

He would go down so badly in Red Oak you would have to gag him.

EDITED THIS BIT:

Nonetheless there is some pretty good armor about the place. To start with, Freya is shown masterwork leather armor for 200 gp a set, giving a natural AC of 13. He says he could make this in another size within about 4 days.

As it happens, he already has some masterwork studded leather for 300 gp, AC 14, in both elf and human size. He could make dwarf in another 5 days.

On the subject of Wyvern hide, he doesn't seem that excited.

'Well, certainly it is tough stuff, but nothing like the dragonhide of old' he says. 'Nonetheless, I suppose I could make something up. It would be good for yon ranger, that Talin that you speak of, and yourself as well, little master Stonemettle. But no good at all for yourself, young miss Tigersong, or your wizard mistress either.'

(What he means in game terms is that wizards can't wear this type of armor and nor can scouts.)

He offers to make you 2 suits of light-weight Bringandine armor out of the wyvern hide, for a total of 1000 gp, provided he gets to keep the rest of the hide. This will take him 10 days. That would be AC 15 for Kilian and Talin, and counts as light armor.

If you get both suits, plus 2 suits of the leather, he'll do the whole deal for 1300gp, provided he can keep the rest of the wyvern hide. That would be 14 days work for him and his assistants.

'You can't say fairer than that, can you?' he says. You have no idea whether you can say fairer than that. However, your appraise and armorer rolls both indicate that this guy really does know how to make great armor. Probably why he got such a good ambassadorial appointment.

Meanwhile, Tiana and Rillow discuss the runes, and Rillow's sage knowledge comes up trumps again.

'These are very old indeed, the first human kind of writing, from many thousands of years ago. That first one I take to be the moon, and the last one is a human face. I do not know what the middle one is. They do not have any magical power about them, on their own. Maybe the bones you took them from have magic. But I think you did the right thing in not disturbing them.'
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Talin and Fido work out pretty quickly that the part of Old Town you are in is pretty segregated from the rest of Brant and there is not much action to be had here. Well-heeled humans walk in groups along neat streets, and elven women are seen in pairs, holding hands. Talin even sees someone with a parasol. He also gets stopped by guards, twice. As soon as he mentions Ember they back down, but they ask him to pick up after Fido from now on.

You meet up on Monday afternoon at the University Arms, a pretty sedate pub inside the segregated area, to discuss what you have found so far.

PS - you are staying with Ember, in her guest rooms. If that's too snooty for you, you can move out and find an appropriate haunt, but you'll be paying for it.
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Re: To Brant and Back (Chapter 6)

Post by Woe »

Armor

Freya going to guess a bit here, but her guess of the fair market value for the magical armor is 1000gp for the leather and 1500 for the brigandine; the armorer's time is ~250gp (I'm pulling that from the book). His profit would be crazy -- almost 2500gp in profit (2*1500 - 250gp). With that said, it's the right deal (two brigandine armor, two leather armor) so it's more about what he gets out of it.
Freya HP 24/24 AC 16 (17 two weapons)
Kilian HP 20/20 AC 19 (18 no shield)
Talin HP 29 AC 16
Tiana HP 11 AC 12 SP 8/8
Fido HP 9/9 AC 16
Anna HP 12/12 AC 15 (19 defensively)
Bruce HP 20/20 AC 16 (15 no shield)

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RETHINK on the armor

Post by Longman »

You're referring to the profit he isn't making because he's selling it to you for much less?

For the leather armor, I'm going on the notion that high quality armor is x10 standard cost, to make. If it were for sale to a plebian, it might cost far more, but he is selling it to you at cost, because Tiana is effectively on a mission for the elves in Brant.

EDITED -

What he is offering is just normal brigandine armor, that weighs less. Therefore it is AC 15. The cost is still 500 gp per suit.

Actually, the main profit he is making is that he gets to keep the extra wyvern hide and make 2 more suits out of it, for other elvish warriors elsewhere.

Anyway if you are going to do this deal, give me the go ahead and you can get around to selling loot elsewhere in the city. That should not be too hard...unless you want it to be...

Otherwise, look round for a new armorer I guess.
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Re: To Brant and Back (Chapter 6)

Post by Woe »

I'm not sure if I totally care about changing the outcome. I just want to understand the economy. You're also right about not counting the lost profit if he's doing the armor for free. I'm not sure why he should reclaim the profit and not the party though... ;)

Brigandine is 80gp in the EE (AC15). That means masterwork brigandine would be normally 800gp. If he sells it at his cost (labor), that'd be 500gp of labor, aka a really expensive production. It'd also set the (hide + profit) combined at 300gp each. If that math is good, the hide isn't as expensive as what Freya thought miles ago in Boldenwald.

Leather armor is 20gp in the EE, so masterwork leather would be 200gp and I'm guessing the magical armor is 1250gp. So 2x brigandine (1600gp) + 2x leather +1 (2500gp) for 1300gp + (<300gp) is a great deal for the party. It's a steal!

Ergo, I think the overall trade is good, but the armorer is overvaluing the brigandine and undervaluing the leather. Agree with the thought process?

- - - - - - - - -

The value of the masterwork brigandine is that it's lighter, and that translate into the party's move being 40' not 30'? I really like the idea of moving faster, though I'll need to figure out how to carry the extra food.

Would it be possible for the party to sell the hide outright and have two suits of splint mail (1000gp * 2) as well as the leather armor? I think I'm lingering on the fact that the original thought was the armor would be AC18, a huge jump from leather. AC15 isn't that bad. It's just not as good as AC18.
Freya HP 24/24 AC 16 (17 two weapons)
Kilian HP 20/20 AC 19 (18 no shield)
Talin HP 29 AC 16
Tiana HP 11 AC 12 SP 8/8
Fido HP 9/9 AC 16
Anna HP 12/12 AC 15 (19 defensively)
Bruce HP 20/20 AC 16 (15 no shield)

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