DM Esther Friday November 11th, 2022 10:25:07 PM
With a little fooling around over how nobody checked if the boat with this weight in cargo in it would not be too deep in the water, the party sets sail back up the river towards Freedom Landing. Along the way, people share yet more ideas, magical and otherwise, that might be of use for the people of Freedom Landing.
(Not to be a killjoy, but don’t count on random npcs being able to learn a level of Wizard - PC classes are for PCs and named major characters only, and even if some NPCs could become NPC Adepts, Temperature Control is not on that spell list)
To the relief of everyone, including Boyo who does actually tire after a while of swimming in the cold river, the sound of the keel digging itself into sand stays away and by halfway through the second day after leaving Karri, you dock at Freedom Landing to be met with a hopeful welcome home by your people.
When your precious cargo is unloaded, the mood turns to joy. Elf fingers test the thickness of the cotton cloth. Orc fingers pick quite skillfully at the bale of wool, and with no more than a pair of smooth sticks spin a small sample off that immediately becomes the subject of discussion between a group of the women of all races of Freedom Landing over how that is going to make many good linings.
You have accomplished several things in your latest visit to Karri, starting with that the winter clothing shortage is now effectively resolved. What is more, you have laid the groundwork for creating a reliable flow of needed goods between Freedom Landing and Karri, and found a buyer for some of your highest value export crafts, with a deal that will secure a steady trickle of income to pay for those goods.
The artisans calmly listen as Ash shares with them the offer that was made to her, and nod. A human craftsman, one you remember making mother-of-pearl inlaid wooden cutlery before, finally speaks up; ”It is not bad business, buckles and attire ornaments.. and the price is fair. Better than us making things we can only hope will be in demand when a traveling peddler next deigns to visit out here we s’pose. We’ve all got some more tools and materials we’d like to get our hands on to make our jobs easier, so certain pay now is better than uncertain sales having to take our things to market ourselves.”
Furthermore, you have revisited old contacts and made some new ones, and collectively spent thousands of gold in Karri in a single day. While that sum is nothing special to bring to the Catacombs, you have spent it in places where common folk notice, on common folk goods – even through the guild middle man, over a dozen shops have felt your spending power, and since they all had to deliver to your boat they are nominally aware of where those purchases are going. The same can be said of a number of Karri shipwrights and workers that will know who they are outfitting a new boat for. In doing all this, you have planted a few seeds of a better reputation for Freedom Landing, bringing it up from “Never heard of”, “Isn’t that where they sent those resettled refugees?”, or at best “That was the adventuring company that took on the thieves’ guild, right?”, and nudged it ever so slightly towards becoming better known as a real place.
- - - [Consequence of your actions: from here on, the settlement of Freedom Landing will no longer be under the ‘dead broke, no money in circulation’ limitation. The rules for making a living as described under the Profession skill will be applicable across the settlement, unskilled labour earning 1 silver per day, and skilled labor earning their profession check times 5 silver per week. People will be using this income to buy tools and household items they need when they can afford them, and living standards will begin to move gradually towards that of a basic but functional village.] - - -
Zazu (AC20, HP46) and Boyo the bunny (AC18, HP23) (Cayzle) d20=17 ; Saturday November 12th, 2022 7:42:48 AM
Zazu is not in favor of burning wood this winter, if it can be avoided. The wizard wanders around the camp, showing off the Rose's Temperature Control spell, and trying to get a feel for anybody who just might have an aptitude for learning magic. Maybe that's nobody ... but maybe there's SOMEbody!
Gather Info (untrained charisma check) 17! Go me!
"It's really nifty and useful," Zazu explains to any prospect found. "Plus you can cast other spells too! And cantrips, like Mending and Light, as often as you want!"
Panzer Braun (David F) AC 28 (T16, FF24) CMD 26 HP 81/81 ) Character Sheet Saturday November 12th, 2022 3:26:08 PM
Panzer prefers." Isn't that the group that Decimated the thieves guild" but he will take what notice he can get.
Ash (RobC) -- AC 17/12/15 -- CMD 14 -- HP 60/60 Saturday November 12th, 2022 8:36:59 PM
Mike and Brianna are capable casters, and Brother Matthew definitely knows some healing and protective spells. Murzush and even Codru can cast spells too. Between them she thinks they have enough spells to protect the most vulnerable members of Freedom's Landing. She wonders about the value of a spell that controls the weather in case things get a little too hairy. It's a little outside her casting capabilities, however a scroll or two could be nice in case of emergencies.
Ash has no problems burning dead wood. In her mind, there's no way a settlement this big could get away without it. No matter how many layers of clothing they might have, every house needs heating. In fact, she's happy to get timber from anywhere that isn't the Culverwood.
She then has an idea. "You know, I've heard tell of a Hallow spell that lets everyone near it benefit from an Endure Elements spell for an entire year. That would help protect people in the winter and the summer. It would cost about 2,000gp but that might be a bargain for the benefit it provides to everyone. We can either buy it as a scroll and cast it ourselves, or hire someone from Karri to come and cast it. We could center it on one of the long houses and then everyone inside, or even close by, would be covered by it. I mean, we could even buy a few and cover the whole town if we needed to, but that might take more than we can afford right now."
There are a so many other benefits that the spell provides - protection from evil mind control, protection from evil summoned creatures (they can't even enter the area), protection from undead (and becoming one!) - that Ash is pretty convinced this spell is a clear cut 'yes'. She's got some gold put aside that she can spend to provide it, but wants everyone's input first.
Sahabiel (EstherLauren) -- AC 22/11/21 -- HP: 56/56 Saturday November 12th, 2022 10:31:47 PM
Sahabiel considers Ash the group’s resident authority on magical theory, so if Ash thinks having a hallowed zone within the town would be a good idea, there is probably a good reason for it. She is less convinced about additionally weaving Endure Elements into one at such cost though?
“If ya say so..? But I should tell ya I’ve not known individual hallowed areas to be particularly large, and there is them providing their protective added effects to people only while they stay within them? Don’t ya think that if ya made all the people stay put together in a small enough area to cover with the prayer of hallowing, they’d already stay warm enough in there just ‘cause of the whole being packed together thing? Besides, for the whole last season we’ve been charcoal piling all the reeds we couldn’t use for construction..” Sahabiel pauses and looks at her hands… memories still fresh of treating the frequent little cuts caused by carrying so many sheaves of reeds. “Our stores held enough fuel to feed everyone’s fires through to the other end of the cold months, even before they came to hold enough food to feed the people themselves. And now that there’s warm clothes as well, don’t we have everything that any other village would get through winter on?”
Zazu (AC20, HP46) and Boyo the bunny (AC18, HP23) (Cayzle) Sunday November 13th, 2022 12:25:56 PM
"I think a Hallow would be a great idea, Ash," says Zazu. "Does it have to be Hallowed to a particular diety? We could make the town Hallowed to the Culverwood, I guess?"
"I suppose we have provided enough for our village," Zazu adds, "but more does not hurt!"
Ash (RobC) -- AC 17/12/15 -- CMD 14 -- HP 60/60 Sunday November 13th, 2022 5:04:33 PM "It wouldn't cost much more to Widen it to an 80ft radius too"
Ash puts the total cost for a Widened Hallow to be 3,200gp if cast by a local Druid, perhaps from Karri. Maybe even Nelly could do it? It would only be 2,450 for the non-widened version.
Beech (JohnC) AC 19(23)/14/15,HP 24/40 Character Sunday November 13th, 2022 7:57:44 PM
Beech, still keeps his mouth shut....until it gets towards the last part...
"We, and I me our group in particular, can not continually bail out the town. It may be hard, it may be rough, but the town has to learn to survive without us tossing gold at the problem.We've given it a good head start, I plan on a bit more of in kind trading with people here, but unless I hire someone to look after my home once I get it built, no more gold. Without it being earned, it's staying in my money pouch.' He knows it sounds final, because it is, at least for him....
Zazu (AC20, HP46) and Boyo the bunny (AC18, HP23) (Cayzle) Monday November 14th, 2022 8:52:23 AM
"The town still has like, what is it, Ash? 15 grand in gold in the treasury? So that should be fine, Beech -- we don't have to kick in more. That said, if someone wants to spend their own personal gold to support their preferred public works, I think that's fine, too! That's what I did to support trade."
OOC to new DMs: Zazu gave 1,000 gp, no strings attached, to an NPC merchant, Master Featherbrook, to promote trade. And 50 gp, back when we were poor, on community fish and crawdad traps. These expenses are tracked as part of my wealth on my sheet, so they continue to ding my WBL. Prolly I'll kick in more to the traps later on, being a trap crafter, and maybe I'll pay for spellbooks if any likely wizard prospects pop up. Zazu's personal public works interest also includes the brickworks and kiln, so I may kick in some gold on that, maybe to subsidize a potter and brickmaker for a year, now that we have a kiln.
"But before I get more loot to spend on myself or Boyo or the village, I owe everybody some cash for the Immovable Rod I grabbed last adventure." [OOC to DM: Zazu is a bit over WBL because he took a valuable item from loot instead of selling it and paying off equal shares.]
Sahabiel (EstherLauren) -- AC 22/11/21 -- HP: 56/56 Monday November 14th, 2022 12:45:50 PM
Sahabiel sides with Beech on this point. “While it was a natural moral duty to help those that followed ya here to get the basic necessities set up, so they can get by without needing to depend on yer charity forever, it is right that we shouldn’t go too far beyond enabling the people to solve the village’s problems by themselves from here on. Especially as.. ah.. not all of ya think about those problems the same way the common folk do, and I worry it is not helping them stand on their own. Magic items and enchantments can be quick and convenient solutions to some problems, but they’ll soak up the whole settlement’s treasury faster than ya can blink. I’ve been volunteering to perform the prayer of mending and the prayer for purity of food and drink a lot, but that’s only because we’ve been in such a pinch that the people just didn’t have the material resources to do repairs the normal way, nor could we or anyone here afford to let any food go to waste. I’d also be perfectly capable of the prayer of light, but when I need a light in the evening at home, I will light a rushlight just like everyone else.. me giving two coppers for a bundle of them that lasts me a week probably helps more for the woman that’s trying to make a living from making those things than if I went around trying to teach everybody that looks even half-smart how to make light with magic, or spent a large sum in gold to put up some everburning magical streetlights for the people to gather under. We really need to pick our projects, step in as unobtrusively as possible when there are.. clear obstacles, and let the people take care of the rest in ways that they will be able to sustain on the back of their own skills, with or without us here. I volunteered to invest in that barge because without a regular river connection the people couldn’t very well get goods to market, and without being able to get goods to market, they would not be able to afford getting a regular river connection running. That circular trap had to be escaped, to enable the people to get on their feet. That is different from wanting to buy them miracles as shortcuts for the realities of normal life. And I believe the same goes for works of too great ambition that this hamlet is not ready for, simply because of how many people actually live here, and with what skills. When ya bring a hermit a cup of water, they may thank ya. If ya build an aqueduct to their place so they can get water whenever, they’ll ask who ya think is going to have to maintain the bloody thing.”
(ooc: Sahabiel uses 'ya' and 'yer' when speaking in Common, as a reminder she has a very noticeable wood-elven accent)
Panzer Braun (David F) AC 28 (T16, FF24) CMD 26 HP 81/81 ) Character Sheet Monday November 14th, 2022 5:49:06 PM
Panzer walks in halfway through this discussion and while he is confused for awhile he gets the gist of it, but stays quiet. When all the thinkers in town seem to have run out of steam he asks if anyone is interested in helping move 'all that iron' that is still in the boat. Un burdened by his armor he can move a fair bit of it but then it comes down to dropping some and multiple trips and so on. Many hands make light work and all that. He then heads back out to where the smiths and he have been unloading the iron and moving it to the smithy and grabs another armload.
Ash (RobC) -- AC 17/12/15 -- CMD 14 -- HP 60/60 Monday November 14th, 2022 5:49:21 PM "I was thinking the same as Zazu. The town has had plenty of artworks lying around. Any one of those could be sold and the money used for magical protection. We needn't dip into our own funds unless we want to." Ash explains "It's not our money though, so we should put it to the council to decide what they want to do"
Nightingale (JonS) HP 36/43 AC 21 CMD: 21 Monday November 14th, 2022 7:59:00 PM
Nightingale will help Panzer move stuff where it needs to go ... it'll keep her busy
Lothlo (WillD) -- AC: 20/15/16, HP: 40/53, CMD: 23 Monday November 14th, 2022 8:20:10 PM That hallowed spell sounds pretty amazing, but I agree that we probably shouldn't be doing that. It's a lot of money, and the town needs to learn to become sufficient. We are already in far better shape than previous winters, and that much money would be much better spent on expanding farm land, raising farm animals, and other projects that will help the town grown over the next year.
Naithi (JamesD) AC: 24/16/19 HP: 42/42 , CMD = 18 Camalayas AC = 22/16/16 Monday November 14th, 2022 8:51:48 PM
Naithi agrees that the group needs to find a balance between being leaders and babysitters for the town. The town is used to living in this climate and has the skins to survive. This would be a good time to remind everyone of The Choosing Ceremony we talked about where the various masters of their craft and fields talk to the orphans about the various professions and take one of those coming of age under their wing to train. This will be especially helpful if there are some interest in becoming a druid or cleric.
LOG ON