Stavanger Again, Now in July

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Continued from Loaded Down, Wealthy, July 20-21st

July 23rd & 24th, 1650

The DM: It is a clear, pleasant day, no clouds in the sky, no rain, with a light air barely blowing at two knots towards the southeast as you head off to Stavanger. At this rate, it will take you 11 hours to cross the bay, running with the wind ... but as noon approaches, windward shifts to the left, allowing the boat to reach and improve it's speed; the wind also increase to 3 knots, shortening your whole journey to 8½ hours. It's a beautiful day, with clear blue water, a warm sun and the gentle creak of the boat as you make your way. With nothing to bale, you kick off your shoes into the bottom of the boat, stretch out, enjoying the sun and appreciating this sea travel business, perhaps for the first time. Your feet don't hurt from walking, you're not sweating in your clothes and armour, nothing is moving on the water that can possibly threaten you. It's beautiful.

Sadly, by three in the afternoon, the wind dies again, this time nearly completely, so you have to row for some hours. That spoils it a little, until you find yourselves laughing, pausing in the middle of the journey to take a quick swim (the water is invigorating for Norwegians, gnomes and elves, bloody cold for a continental), and you're about four miles from Stavanger by six o'clock. There's nothing to do but to keep rowing, as the wind doesn't come back, though Nadia squeezes every inch out of the 1-knot wind blowing from the southwest. At last you see the headland of Ieten (the region about Stavanger), then the city itself. At nine o'clock, 12 hours from departure, you set foot on dry land again. It is still day; the sun won't set for another two hours.
As ever, you can find Embla and her parents, and spend the night with her. Begin with telling me what you want to do on the 24th. It is a Wednesday.
I draw your attention to these recent notes on Sea Travel.

Pandred: What are we offloading on this trip?

Lexent: I believe that our first order of business should be beginning the process of securing passage at least as far as Bergen. From there we can continue on northward, or make inquiries regarding Ross.

Vafrandir: Remember our timeline for the lighthouse fund. I suspect the Bronnoysond journey will take more than a month all told.

Selling Gems

Vafrandir: We have our gems to appraise, as well as a few extra weapons: a fine short bow, a fine mace, and two fine shortswords. Do we want to sell the lamp oil and vinegar?

Lexent: Well, if the gems, weapons, and adamantium do net us enough, we could send that back to Treborg with Nadia.

The DM: For selling, Vafrandir has access to Bargaining now. That page is organized for buying, but, for haggling, Vafrandir can make a charisma check to see if he can “increase” your sale price by 10%, or by 1-8%. If he wants to pressure bargain, he can attempt to increase your total by 15% to 30% (d4+2 x5%). That’s a risk, but for that, Vafrandir will get +3 to his charisma on account of the value of the gems.

The DM: The opening bid on all your gems is 533 g.p. Let me know if there’s some you’d like to sell and some you’d like to hold back. It’s complicated, but I have that info for every gem.

Vafrandir: A fine thought, Lexent. We will go get those things appraised.

Vafrandir: So I would need to roll under a 14+3=17, correct?

Vafrandir: I think we should sell all.

The DM: Correct. Or be banned from entering a jeweler in Stavanger for a year.

Vafrandir: I attempt to pressure. 16. Whoa.

The DM: The final number is 866 g.p., 9 s.p.

Vafrandir: That had my adrenaline up, I'll say.

The DM: Cool.

Weapons

Vafrandir: I'll move on to the weapons.

The DM: That’s how a good rule should work. Who wants to book passage? Someone with a good charisma can make a check to speed up the process.

The DM: Do you want to risk pressuring the armourer or the weaponwright?

Lexent: Is that where we would sell the adamantium rather than the puddler?

Vafrandir: I'll haggle with both but not pressure. If I understand, the risk of failure for haggling is largely of time spent?

The DM: No, you’d sell the adamantium to the puddler.

Lexent: It looks as though we'll have a few days in town before we can leave anyway. I think Vafrandir has the best chance of securing timely passage, unless my +1 to persons with 10 Charisma or lower applies.

The DM: You couldn’t know if it applies or not, until you actually tried to secure a passage; it might, it might not. I’d roll. Vafrandir is going to be busy today selling things. Remember, it is ½-hour per venue visited to buy things from, with a ten hour maximum; every pressure-bargaining Vafrandir does is an extra hour. Haggling requires 10 extra minutes. If he also wants to buy things from several different vendors, that will fill up the 24th for him and you’ll lose a day waiting for him to secure passage.

Arduin: Actually, that's me I think. 16 Charisma. I'll secure passage.

The DM: Roll, Arduin.

Arduin: 7 on d20.

Vafrandir: Haggling: weaponwright, 10. What would be sold at the armourer instead?

The DM: You have passage leaving tomorrow, the 25th, for Bergen.

The DM: Sorry, Vafrandir, I somehow thought there was a shield. We’re selling the bow, the mace and the short swords together?

Vafrandir: Correct. The remaining shield was given to Bjarni.

The DM: 63 g.p. for the weapons.

Vafrandir: Very good! On to haggle with the puddler: 14, a close one. About 50 lbs.