Leaving the musician as he begins his song ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uirXFig0IQ ), you walk over to the wooden table - looking around for pretty barmaids as you walk - where the two men are drinking and arguing. Both men are wearing grey, full-body boiler suits - they're probably two of the miners the barman mentioned.

"Listen," the bearded man insists, "it was nothing to do with 'underground magma chambers'". I've been mining those mountains for sixteen years now and I have never seen anything like it, not in my whole life."

"All it was the ignition of a natural gas deposit. Just a big cavern of gas that caught fire. Doesn't sound too unlikely, not like what you're proposing. We both know how sparks can trigger gas."

"Good evening," you say to the men as you reach them. "May I join you?"

The men glance at one another, then the more shaven man says "Alright."

"I overheard your conversation whilst walking through the pub," you confess. "I'm a travelling merchant; I've had a tiring day and I'd appreciate joining in. Do you mind?"

"It's fine," says the bearded man. "I'm Brian; this here is Jon. Nice to meet you."

"We've been debating what've been going up in the mines up north," says Jon.

(cont.)

"Do you know the mines in the Springstream Mountains?" he asks.

"I don't, no."

"They mostly turn out ores. Anyway, some unusual things have been occurring there over the last fortnight and no-one's quite sure of the cause. First there were earth tremors, which forced us to halt mining. Then there were strange loud noises heard, like short roars. Some of us noticed that there had been disturbances around some of the trails - mostly rockfalls, and some depressed vegetation."

"Trampled, I call it," comments Brian. "You make it sound like those birches were sad."

"Likely this was due to the strong wind we've been experiencing lately. Then about a week ago, we saw a huge pillar of fire rising out of between two of the hills, lasting less than a minute before stopping."

"Interesting," you say, and take a gulp of mead.

"Now, it is my opinion that the phenomenon was due to the ignition of a small chamber of flammable natural gas."

"And what do you think, Brian?" you ask.

"I think it was the waking of a dragon."

[Reasonable write-ins are always welcome.]

>Ask them to describe what they saw personally in greater detail. Nothing like a good story from somewhere safely fair away.
>Change the subject; ask them if they've brought down any ores to sell.
>Express skepticism. Dragons don't exist in the modern world.
>Leave the table and find someone else to talk to. You'd heard there were other travellers in the inn - it's more likely then not that some of them are fellow merchants, and that means businesss.

>>317102
>Change the subject; ask them if they've brought down any ores to sell.

"If there is a dragon, then it'll be found and dealt with. However I need ores to trade..."

>>317102
"If there is a dragon, then it'll be found and dealt with. However, I need ores to trade..."

"You're definitely a merchant," says Brian. "Luckily for you, we've brought some ores south on the road."

"I think I could take some of that weight off your pack-load - for the right price. What exactly is your trade cargo?"

"We've brought a load of iron ore and copper ore, and some metal discs. We're storing them in our room - do you want to have a look?"

"Let me first inform you of my own cargo - I have brought two barrels of meadow honey from the south. Does that interest you?"

"We are still travelling south and we have little room for unnecessary goods, especially those as heavy as a full barrel of honey. If you could perhaps sell us only a small bottle, that might be different, but we would need to discuss pricing."

You finish the rest of your tankard of mead, and:

>Buy a round
>Suggest you view their ores now
>Ask them to sample the honey

>>317731
>Buy a round

>>317742
>Buy a round

You walk over to the bar and order a couple of tankards of perry. Maybe there are local pear orchards here? You expect perry could sell well in the north, or on islands, where there might be less perry pear trees - you don't know much about the drink, though.

You bring three full tankards back to the table. "What was the food at the Springstream Mountains?" you ask. Possibly there's an opportunity to bring some food up to the mines. You can travel faster by sail than rival traders can on the road, so you could try shipping fruit, or some alcohol or jam.

"We ate quite a lot of wild game," replies Brian. "Deer and hare. We also had biscuits and hardtack, and some oranges or sometimes lemons or limes for health."

"What about alcohol?"

"We drank a lot of spirits, because they're easy to transport. We drank apple brandy, but sometimes we'd also get some beer or cider from merchants from the south. And we used to brew our own mead from wild honey, and fruit wine from lwild strawberries and raspberries. Those fruit wines were gorgeous, beautiful, better than any of the stuff we got imported."

By now, you've all finished your tankards.


>Buy another round
>Suggest you view their ores now
>Ask them to sample the honey

>>317854
>Suggest you view their ores now

>>318743
This.

>>317854
>>Ask them to sample the honey

>>317854
>Suggest you view their ores now

They have warmed up to us by now, time for business.

>>317854
"Let's have a look at those ores you mentioned."

"Sounds good," replies Brian. "I'll lead the way."

You head over to the back of the pub and ascend a set of stairs to the upper level of the inn, where two rows of doors open out onto a corridor. Each of the doors has a number painted on it, and a pinecone hangs next to it on a small pole, suspended by a piece of string.

The miners lead you to room 20 and unlock the door. Stepping inside, you see that the room contains two bunk beds, a couple of chairs and a small desk with a quill. There are two bags laid on the floor.

"Here we are," announces Brian.

It looks comfier that the store-room in which you'll be spending the night. Maybe you could convince them to sell their room...

"This looks comfortable."

"It's lucky we arrived early enough, considering the demand there's been lately," says Jon. "It's not too fancy, but it's not shabby either. The mattresses are clean and there's no lice, which is more than I can say for the last few places we've been through."

"Would you show me the ores, then?"

He opens one of the bags, made out of some sort of light brown sack material, revealing a number of string-wrapped cloth parcels, some marked with a capital I and some marked with a C. One parcel is marked with an M.

"The ones marked with I are iron ore, the ones with C are copper ore and the ones with M are refined metal," says Jon. "Do you want to look at all of them?"

>Yes; please show me all of it.
>Just show me the iron ore, please.
>Just show me the copper ore, please.

>>320881
Iron first. Then refined metal and finally copper

>>321072
Jon opens three parcels to display the ores. They mostly just look like irregularly carved, dull grey rocks of varying sizes, about the size of your fist. When you look closer, though, you see that they have many shiny silver specks scattered across their surface, and some contain small lumps of what you guess is some sort of mineral, or possibly iron itself. As a businessman and a traveller, you need to know at least two things: how much they weigh and how much they're worth.

You pick up one of the ores and weigh it in your hand. Seems like it weighs about 30 lbs.

>Pick up another ore
>Ask if you can split one of the ores open
>Make a guess at what a good buying offer might be

>>321214
Do we know the price of metal stuff, like tools, so that we can extrapolate a good estimate?
Maybe their wives or lovers would like a shiny pearl more than coins.

>>321253
Your hometown, The Cliff, was a farming and fishing community and you are the son of two sailors. Your main mercantile knowledge therefore relates to seafood and fishing and nautical equipment; though The Cliff also had a perpetual shoreside market as traders from islands to the east arrived with citrus fruit and some metal goods, and merchants from the pine forests brought timber, furs and spices from the logging camps to the north.

There was little mining in The Cliff and you know little about ores of any kind. That said, you expect that ores with more visible metal and greater weight would contain more metal.

>>321339
Then it would make sense to split an ore open and associate the 30 pounds with a specific concentration of metals in the rock.
I'd also like to see the other metal ores.

Thanks for QMing, hope you are not disappointed it's just the 2 of us.

>>321214
It seems to you that the best way to figure out the value of these ores is to figure out the price of the metal they contain. Iron-headed tools such as knives and spades were common at The Cliff and were regularly bought and rehilted; you yourself remember buying a second-hand iron trowel at the market a few years ago to work the family's vegetable plot, producing a small amount of fresh fruit and vegetables for you and your parents. That trowel cost you about 40 coppers, if you remember rightly.

Now you an idea of the market price, it's time to figure out the metal concentration. That's where the money is.

"Shall we split one of these guys open?" you ask. "What about this one?" You pick up a medium sized ore from where they sit on the unwrapped parcels like massive grey buns on a tablecloth. Genuine 'rock buns', hah.

"Alright," says Brian, "seems fair enough to me. Can't buy something you can't see, can you?"

He reaches into the other plain sack-cloth bag, this one patched with a piece of grey cloth, and brings out an iron toolbox. He reaches inside it and brings out a small iron hammer and a chisel.

"Watch your eyes," he warns. "Sometimes there are splinters when we split the ores."

You shield your eyes under your hand as he aligns the chisel and then strikes it hard with the hammer, producing a loud crack. The ores falls into two neatly divided halves as a cloud of pale grey dust rises into the air and you can't help coughing. After the dust has cleared, you examine the split ore. There are a few small and medium sized pieces of iron inside the rock, and many tiny silver speckles that glitter under the flickering light of the room's lantern.

>Ask for another ore to be split. It's be good to make sure this one isn't a fluke.
>Ask about the location the ores were mined in. You want to know about the quality of the veins - but doing so might expose your lack of knowledge about mining.
>Make an offer for the ores. You should get the business done and move onto the next parcel.

>>321382
I don't mind QMing just for you; thanks for playing. This has never been a popular quest anyway, on /tg/ or /qst/.

>>321488
>Make an offer for the ores. You should get the business done and move onto the next parcel.

Ask what they think would be a fair price for the ores, then haggle to what seems reasonable.

>>321664
Do you want to buy all the ores or just some of them?

>>321685
Just some probably. Also make sure to throw in a bottle of honey, to literally sweeten the deal.

>>321685
If we know little about regular metal, we shouldn't go for the refined. I assume iron is more widely used than copper, so I'd go for that.

>>321488
"This looks like a good ore to me."

>"We only brought the best ores we could get. Travelling on the road, there's no point lugging around poor ores - it's better to refine those at the mine."

"Hmm. I think I could afford to buy... maybe 15 ores for 45 coppers."

>"45 coppers? I don't think you recognise quality when you see it. This is some of the finest iron ore you'll find selling anywhere along the coast road."

"What would you have me pay, then?"

>"I couldn't sell these ores for less than 100 coppers. There's blacksmiths on the road who'd pay that and half again for ore of this concentration."

"I don't think I could buy these for 100 coppers. I have to maintain my raft or there'll be no way for me to get these ores to markets. I can't afford to splash out on steep prices."

>"With these ores, you have a seal of approval from people who know good ore and poor ore when they see it. These must be half iron by weight."

"You should be glad I'm taking these rocks off your hands and lightening your packs. I'm offering right now to liquidate half your stock of iron ore and turn it into light, small, universal coppers. No more haggling with village blacksmiths just to get a room at an inn. I'll throw in a bottle of honey, and I'll even buy a glass bottle from the barman myself."

>"That does sound like something worth having on the road. Bread and butter can get a bit tiring. 80 coppers and the honey."

"80 coppers is still too much. I am just a humble travelling merchant, not a travelling lordling. I couldn't pay more than 60 coppers and I'd have to reserve the honey."

>"I'll sell the 15 ores and I'll throw in a fossil, all for 75 coppers and the honey."

"I'll offer you 60 coppers, two pearls, a bottle of honey and I'll buy the next round of drinks, for 20 iron ores and the fossil.", you say. "And that's my final offer. And you have to buy the bottle."

>"Deal."

You shake hands with both miners.

+ 20 iron ores
+ Fossil
- 60 coppers
- 2 pearls
- Bottle of honey

>Buy something else from the miners
>Head back down to the pub. Haggling is thirsty work and you could ask someone about the geography of the area.
>Check out the storeroom. It might need some tidying if you're going to spend the night there. There might also be some booze the innkeeper could be persuaded to sell.

>>322073
>Check out the storeroom. It might need some tidying if you're going to spend the night there. There might also be some booze the innkeeper could be persuaded to sell.
See if he has any fruit wines.

>>322094
Jon and Brian rewrap and retie two of the parcels. You count out 60 copper coins onto the desk, stacking them in piles of 5. Most of your coins were minted in The Cliff by the local blacksmith, who has marked them on one side with an etching of a fishhook and on the other with an image of one of the caverns at the base of the high chalk cliff that gives your hometown its name. You lay two pearls onto the desk. You pick up the fossil which has been placed on the desk; it's about 2 and a half inches long and bears the impression of a curved shell like that of a sea-snail.

You pick up the parcels of ores and leave the room, going back downstairs to the pub, where the eyepatched musician is strumming a slow song. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQRzIJcPMNs

"Can you show me the store room?" you ask the barman.
"Irina will show you there. Do you mind, 'Rina?

"I don't mind," she says. She comes out from behind the bar and shows you to the store room, which is above ground. It probably wasn't worth the trouble of digging a cellar in the colder north, especially if barrels sit in the warm for a while behind the bar anyway. Inside the store-room there are a few barrels and crates; the room is otherwise empty.

>Ask Irina about the stores
>Investigate the barrels yourself
>Head back to the pub

>>322271
I return from the previous thread
Glad to see it was a dragon, hopefully we decide to go somewhere.
Is there anyone in the pub who trades weapons? Or a blacksmith who could melt down our recently acquired ores and forge us a weapon?

>>322689
I'm afraid I'm on GMT summer time and I'm probably going to go to bed now.

What did you think of the thread so far?

>>322880
It's coming along nicely the details are fantastic but I think a slight speed up in pace wouldn't hurt. If you have to sacrifice some detail I'm sure nobody would complain.

>>322958
I disagree though. There's no plot that we need to advance and OP paints a nice scenery that I enjoy recreating in my mind. Also we are taking maybe 4 actions per trade, which seems OK?
In the end it's just my opinion against yours, and I wouldn't be against OP deciding to change the pace.

I'm awake again.

I'm going to go with >>322094 when I get around to writing an update.

>>322958
>>324376
Thanks for the feedback.

>>322271
Though it isn't immediately obvious as some barrels are stacked behind one another, you can see that there are 11 barrels and two crates - they all look to be in servicable condition. By examining the barrels, which are marked in tar with capital letters, and asking Irina for information, you figure out that
- 3 of the barrels contain cider
- 1 is filled with perry
- 1 holds apple brandy
- 1 has a small amount of raspberry wine
- 1 is half full of strawberry wine
- 1 is full of an alcoholic beverage made of fermented gooseberries sweetened with honey
-three barrels are empty. Irina tells you that all the barrels are oak and have been aged holding alcohol.

Inside the two crates are some large ceramic jars of pickled fruit, pickled vegetables, honey, honeycomb, candlewax and a small volume of salt.

>Try to purchase something
>Ask to sample one of the stores
>Ignore the stores for now and instead look to acquire weaponry
>Ask Irina if she has any thread to help you repair your raft

>>324775
Ask for thread, or a place to buy it. Inquire about blacksmiths.

>>324798
"I have a few rolls of thread," replies Irina, "to repair any little rips on our clothes and do a bit of simple embroidery now and then. Mostly on handkerchiefs; I give them out to friends. I'm not really that good at sewing pictures and things, but I like to make presents personal."

"I could definitely find use for a roll of thread," you say. "My sail is torn. I have a spare, but it's my opinion that it's better to get maintenance done when one has the chance. Could I purchase a length from you?"

"Of course. I've got a white thread that strong and durable. Probably just right for a sail. There's also some coloured threads if you're interested."

"That sounds very useful. I'm also looking for some string or rope to repair some frays on the ropes of my raft. Do you have any?"

"I have a bit of spare string, for doing this and that, tying up purses and that kind of thing. We also have a length of wick string for the candles, but that's mordanted so it'd be more expensive. There's some old fishermen who drink here and make rope in the warm. I would advise talking to them."

"Thank you very much," you say, and agree to buy a roll of white thread for 15 coppers.

You walk through the bar until you see a group of old, bearded men sitting at a table surrounded by neat piles of rope, each making produce but also chatting and drinking. You approach them and arrange to buy a long length of rope for 20 coppers.

>Stay up drinking and set out in the morning
>Go to sleep in the store-room
>Ask about where to find a blacksmith

>>324849
On second thought the miners probably already sold some stuff to the blacksmith, so we are gonna hold on to those ores. Still I'd like us to be safer and get ourselves some weapon. Let us find that metal bender. And then catch some sleep.

>>324849
>Ask about where to find a blacksmith
and go look at that perry

I typed this up beforehand.

>Ask about where to find a blacksmith

You approach the barman and ask him where to find the village blacksmith.

"The blacksmith lives outside the main village," he replies. "Next t' the coast, by a stream. Head north, past the jetty. He has a stone forge."

After thanking the barman, you head out into the night. Luckily, the wind has started to lessen and the cold rain has stopped falling. You walk along the beach, a partial moon lighting your way as you crunch along the pebbles, until you reach a squat, round, stone building by the side of a fast-running stream. You knock on the door, seemingly the only wooden part of the building, yet nobody answers.

>Knock louder. Perhaps he is asleep? It wouldn't be unreasonable, considering the time of night.
>Return back to the inn. You'll try again in the morning.
>Try to open the door yourself and go inside.

>>324882
>entering the home of a weapon maker unannounced
Fuck it, open the door and ask if anyone is home.

>>324882
>>Return back to the inn. You'll try again in the morning.
I did not know it was night
>buy that perry and a barrel for making some mead

>>324893
You try to open the door but find it to be locked. Opening his door is one thing, but you're not sure about trying to break down the door. That sounds like a way to get a knife to the face.

You knock again, harder this time, and shout "Hello?" Your efforts are rewarded by a sleepy-sounding "...Whaaaa?" and then "Who is this?"

"I am a travelling merchant, buying and selling goods north and south, anywhere the waves and the wind can take me."

"Uh-huh... but you're not a thief as well?"

"No, I am not. I have come only to negotiate some perfectly legal mercantile activity. I wondered whether you would forge me a weapon."

"At this time of night? I'm a blacksmith, not a... a thing that comes out at night. A nightingale. Or a coral or something. You still haven't given me any proof you're not a bandit."

"I assure you, I'm a potential customer quite interested in your goods. If you'd just open the door then we could do business."

"Fine," says the voice, and slowly opens the door, revealing a bald young man in patched, grey clothes, holding an iron knife.

Behind him, inside the forge, are some iron tools hanging on hoops laid into the walls.

>Request to enter the forge
>Negotiate business outside
>Compliment him on his forge

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFW7yTOmRM8

>>324977
I'll be leaving in the morning, so I'd love to do business with you tonight. It's quite windy out here, mind letting me inside?

>>325028
examine forge first

>request to enter forge

>>324977
You peer past him into the forge. Hanging on the walls are a sword and some trowels and serrated knives, as well as wooden tool-hilts of varying sizes and a pair of long leather gloves. There are a number of wooden tables with burn marks and on top of them are pieces of metal, broken spadeheads and copper coins. In the centre of the forge is a firepit and next to it is an anvil and a few copper buckets.

"I'll be leaving in the morning," you tell the blacksmith, "so I'd love to do business with you tonight. It's quite windy out here, mind letting me inside?"

"Come in. The stone gives better insulation that the wooden houses in the village, though that's ruined by the chimney hole. You wanted a weapon? Seems reasonable. The roads can be dangerous. Don't know about the seas, though. You get any trouble from sharks?"

"Not usually. By far the greatest danger at sea is bad weather."

"Can't say I envy you this storm we've been having - I've thought myself lucky I'm in this forge, nothing's blowing this place away. So, what sort of weapon are you looking for?"

This is a command prompt; sorry for not making that clear.

>>325123
A machete,maybe?
A sidearm could be good as well,maybe a short dagger or knife.

>>325184
"What about a machete?"

That'd be a good weapon and would also help you get through thick vegetation like bushes and brambles if needed. You have only 175 coppers, though, so this purchase might use up most of your coppers. That said, you also have a purse of ten pearls and a purse of 30 discs of pressed spice.

"Huh," he replies. "As it happens, I already have one made." He shows you an iron machete hanging from the wall next to a shorter bastard sword. "But if you don't like it, I can make another one or I can reshape this one."

>Make an offer for the machete
>Inquire about another weapon
>Examine the machete further

>>325250
Examine to see if we can handle it well.

If the machete doesnt cost all of our coins, we should probably look into a small pocket knife or something similiar.

>>325250
id rather a versatile short sword

File: short_sword_by_chioky.jpg (51 KB, 600x450)

51 KB JPG

>>325335
forgot pic

>>325250
"Can I have a look?"

You pick the machete carefully and examine it. The hilt is carved from a brown wood you guess is oak and has no knotholes. The blade is around 2 foot long and sharp, and is mostly straight, though near the end of the blade, cutting edge curves back though the back edge remains straight. You don't see any rust on it. The blade is marked by the hilt with the initials H.SW.

"What do you think?" asks the smith?

>This is just what I'm looking for. I'll offer you _____.
>This is a nice piece of craftsmanship, but I'm more interested in _______.
>Let's come back to this later. Can I see your tools?

>>325402
I feel like a short sword would be much easier to use

>>325402
>>This is a nice piece of craftsmanship, but I'm more interested in _______
a short sword

>>325402
"This is a nice piece of craftsmanship, but I'm more interested in a short sword."

"Right," says the smith, placing the machete back into its hoop. "I have a fine sword here." He takes a short sword from the wall adn presents it you: its blade is about 1 foot and a third, which is set in a wooden hilt. It, too, bears the intiials G.SW. You look over the blade carefully for any cracks, colour disturbances or rust and find none.

Weighing the blade in your hand, you find it to be light enough to be swung comfortably in a slow arc. Luckily, pulling ropes for much of your working time both before and after becoming a tradesman has earnt you a strong pair of biceps.

"If you want, I can wrap any of these hilts in leather pretty cheaply," the smith offers.

>Make an offer of _______
>Investigate another weapon
>Make your budget clear and ask what you can afford

>>325541
If we are used to pulling ropes, wouldnt our hands be hard enough that we dont need leathered hilt?

Make budget clear. The man has offered us stuff that looks good and woke up just for this shit. He aint gonna rip us off.

>>325554
This post is truth

>Make an offer of _______
60C that seems reasonable.How many coins do we have

>>325541
Also ask him to look at some iron to see the value of it

>>325554
"I don't think I'll need a leather hilt. My hands are tough. If sweat becomes a problem, I can always wrap some cloth around it. Considering the temperature now, though, I think I'll be fine."

The smith's ginger eyebrows bob up and down as he nods his head.

"I have a budget of 175 coppers," you continue, "but I also have pearls, spice and 2 barrels of honey, as well as 20 rocks of iron ore."

"I see. If you cared enough to walk all the way out here from the village alone in the middle of the night, in this weather, then I'd not like to send you away with nothing. I don't really need many coppers - I actually minted quite a few of the copper coins in this village. Now and again, I buy copper pitchforks and shinguards and that sort of thing, melt them down and make them into new coins. And sometimes I make cheap tools or new coppers out of rusty old copper coins. I could sell you this sword for 100 coppers; that's the market price. But I will accept other goods in place of coin."

>>325650
>Haggle
>Offer the money in coppers
>Offer the money in combination of coppers and goods

>>325697
Hmm, offer 80 copper coins a couple pearls if he adds a pocket knife to the deal?

>>325713
Actually, you already have a medium-sized serrated iron knife.

>>325718
60 copper and a couple pearls. Start haggling with 50 copper and 1 pearl.

>>325730
This

I've been roped into a long game of Scrabble and I'm going to have to call a pause on the quest. Thanks for playing so far.

>>325854
Thanks OP. See you soon.

>>325854
May your lexicological brain juices flow

New thread:

boards.4chan.org/qst/thread/335495