View source for Loaded Down, Wealthy, July 20-21st

Continued from '''[[Retire to Above]]'''

'''The DM:''' I will need to know what your action points are on the cart.  I've created a chart for calculating cart encumbrance, if you haven't already seen it.  The weather on the morning of the 20th is beautiful: clear skies, no clouds at all, pleasant weather, a gentle breeze blowing.  Feels like the first day of Summer.

: What's more, seems very quiet this morning as you head out on your journey.

'''[[Lexent]]:''' Quite.

'''[[Vafrandir]]:''' Looking for my Stavanger sheet - AP shortly.

'''[[Vafrandir]]:''' We need to drop about 300 lbs. Max with the mule is 1 AP at 1350 lb, we have about 1635 lb.

'''[[Lexent]]:''' Wow. I don't suppose that's an amount we can spread out amongst ourselves and our hirelings.

'''[[Lexent]]:''' I can only take about another 20 lbs. before I reach my max. 9 more will drop me from 3AP to 2.

'''The DM:''' You have the strengths of each hireling; presume they're already carrying 40 lbs. of personal gear, and that they'd be ready to push themselves to 2 AP ... 1 AP if you'll provide them a 2 s.p./day bonus.

'''[[Vafrandir]]:''' We can give them 282 lb all told and stay at 3 AP. That leaves a little over 3 lbs which any one of us can make up the difference in.

'''The DM:''' You can eat that for breakfast on the 20th.

'''[[Lexent]]:''' Then I believe we are off.

'''The DM:''' Figure 4 lbs. a day for travelling, eat 1½ lb. each for breakfast, then at the end of the first day you finish off with 48 total lbs. gone from eaten food.  The journey is, I remember, 14 total hours at 3 AP.  So it would be 21 at 2 AP ... so you’ve made a little less than half your distance the first day.  That leaves 11 hours at 2 AP.  Unless you want to cache some of your food at the cairn.

'''The DM:''' You have no encounters on the 20th.

'''Pandred''': That's almost too bad. We'd have eaten more of our encumbrance. Hmm, but then we'd have loaded down the cart with trophies. Tricky business.

'''[[Lexent]]:''' As we set up camp for the night, I cast ''Augury'' and ask the following:
:'''[[Lexent]]:''' "Is Hamish Ross in Norway"
:'''[[Lexent]]:''' "Is Hamish Ross in Denmark"
:'''[[Lexent]]:''' "Is Hamish Ross in Scotland"

'''[[Vafrandir]]:''' I thought about caching but we'd have to leave too much to gain any AP. We'll be fine with the longer travel.

'''[[Vafrandir]]:''' Tomorrow, can you ask if the gold can be recognized or tracked?

'''The DM:''' The answers are Yes, null, null.  You don't get answers for the last two questions.

'''The DM:''' From the document: “the scroll delivers a land grant to whom is apparently a Scotsman, Hamish Ross, of 8,000 acres upon the island of Askøy west of Bergen, for services rendered to Christian IV, the King of Denmark, against the Swedes in the Battle of Femern in 1644. The document was to be delivered to Ross so that he could take possession of his lands; the document is dated May the 10th, 1647.”  Which is odd, since all the coins clearly post-date 1648.

'''[[Lexent]]:''' I can certainly ask that tomorrow. I assume the most likely place for him to be is on the island of Askøy, but I figured I'd start narrowing it down.

'''[[Vafrandir]]:''' Thank you for the reminder. That's intriguing.

'''[[Lexent]]:''' And, if I recall, the airship showed signs of being exposed to Norwegian rains and winters for three years.

'''[[Vafrandir]]:''' That implies that the gold is not from the airship. Which I didn't think we believed as a theory but can possibly rule it out anyway.

'''[[Lexent]]:''' Interesting. The pack in which the circlet and land grant were found was described as "bearing the emblem of the King of Denmark & Norway, Christian the 5th. Your king." Is this merely a typo?
: '''The DM:''' Hm.  That shouldn't have been published; it was an error I thought I'd fixed before publishing. I'll clear it up.  Christian the 5th doesn't become king for a while.  Your present king is Frederick III.  
::'''[[Lexent]]:''' Meaning that the emblem on that pack was of Frederick III, meaning that the land grant could date to the same time as the gold, just not the airship.
::: '''The DM:''' That's correct.

'''[[Vafrandir]]:''' Also, cultic goblins may not have had much use for gold. Perhaps Ross may have a deeper connection to the Grond lair than we previously thought.

'''Pandred''': Here I thought we were about to uncover a cool conspiracy with the wrong king. Denmark-Norway got soundly beaten in the wars preceding us. Sweden pretty much runs the Baltic from what I understand.

'''The DM:''' Odd.  My first draft made that Christian V error last night; and now I find I made the same mistake months ago.  I draw your attention to [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_III_of_Denmark#:~:text=Frederick%20III%20(Danish%3A%20Frederik%3B,until%20his%20death%20in%201670.&text=He%20instituted%20absolute%20monarchy%20in,the%20Throne%20Chair%20of%20Denmark this page on wikipedia]:

'''The DM:''' Don’t be too sure about that 3 year weathering; you’re not experts, it’s just a guess.
: Pandred, since the death of Gustavus, Sweden has been on a very slight decline; and with the end of the 30 years war, it is getting embroiled in disputes over the territory it holds on mainland Europe.  It is distracted from menacing Denmark & Norway at present.  This would be common knowledge.

'''[[Vafrandir]]:''' I assume the king who granted the land was Christian IV. The airship bearing the grant crashes shortly after (and no apparently attempt is made to recover it). Frederick III became king in 1648, mints special coins, and Hamish Ross takes possession of them. Then they find their way to Grond. The timing of the airship crash would help determine whether or not the coins were on the ship, which would be the most convenient explanation for their presence in the lair.

'''[[Lexent]]:''' Except that the bag at the airship also bore the emblem of Frederick III.
: '''The DM:''' Yes, I want to make sure its understood that's the case, my error nonwithstanding.

'''[[Vafrandir]]:''' Ah, ok. So then the working theory is that the gold was on the airship and was recovered/taken to the lair.

'''[[Lexent]]:''' So, a couple of possibilities: 
* Our estimates on the length of time the ship was there were wrong.
* The gold and bag were not on the airship when it crashed, but instead were brought there later.
* They started making Frederick III coins and bags before he was king.
* Time travel.

'''The DM:''' bursts out laughing.