Talk:Stavanger, May 21, 1650

Embla Strand no worries. I've errands to run for the next few hours anyways.

Vafrandir: In. I'll buy a longsword and studded leather armor: slow but sure upgrades. We need to discuss what supplies we need to buy: we've come very close to running out of food several times while up in Treborg. What are our next steps and how can be best prepare?

Pandred: In. As much food by weight that we can manage. I think I will get a pocket telescope as well. Given we're in Norway, we should be prepared for trolls in the mountains, although what that looks like I'm not sure.

Pandred: How do we think we can turn a profit here? The giant was a good friend, but not lucrative. Could we find Dilhak again, see what his people know about ghoulies in the valleys?

Vafrandir: A chest full of 150 lb of food would last for less than a month. If we can find him again it'd be good to find what he knows, but I think he's from further north and may return soon.

The DM: In.

The DM: Catching up. We need to manage the cost to freight your goods into Stavanger. As said before, freight is 9 g.p. per ton of goods to be moved, or 2,000 lbs, per 24 hr period or part thereof. Each living being counts as 2 tons. Only 1 day occurred, as the journey took 5 hours. I'll need this paid. Since it will cost 18 g.p. to ship Oddsdrakken to Treborg, do you want to continue to leave him in Treborg or bring him along?

Vafrandir: 2204.5 lb of freight + 3 living persons. Does my body count as freight?

The DM: "Each living being" ... so, yes. As 2 tons. So that is 8 tons, or 72 g.p.

Vafrandir: + 2 more tons of freight (assuming we round the weight up to the nearest ton) = 90 gp even for the trip. I say we split it 4 ways (and I'll take the slack).

Pandred: I'll handle the whole thing in cost. I've purchased a lot of things on previous trips, I don't mind going light this time.

Pandred: I'll also pick up a pocket telescope. That leaves me with about 50gp to contribute to whatever we decide to do about food. If any of us had some kind of food scrounging ability that would be ideal. I could always have Odds go fishing, but as an amateur he'd be lucky to support himself with it, never mind the rest of us.

OOC-DM: as an aside, I've returned to the monumental task of reworking my pricing table; this is a nitpicky process which will result in corrected prices and more in-depth descriptions, more available goods and, in this case, I'll be building things like freight costs into the system.

The DM: Have you considered the possibility of buying a rowboat? You don't have much need for navigation, as you can nearly get across the fjord without leaving sight of land. A long boat is much more seaworthy than a tiny rowboat and you don't need sailing for it. Costs 206 g.p.

Pandred: That sounds pretty good, and it pays for itself in one round trip. I can contribute up to 50gp.

Vafrandir: What is the requirement for docking in Stavanger and Treborg? Would we need special permission to do so?

The DM: These are things I need to bake into the system. Since it is just a long-boat and any mooring post will do, we'll call it the equivalent of a low-rent inn room, or 12 c.p. per day.

Pandred 1sp per day, so just shy of 2gp per month. That seems doable.

The DM: That will be the price in Stavanger; I'm not just correcting the old price tables, I'm rebuilding them in parts, so "mooring post" should, unless I forget, be showing up on the new table. Just now I am buried in textiles, distinguishing "wool plush" from "wool velvet."

Pandred Out.

Vafrandir: Very good. I'll see how much I have left over after buying food. I suggest we use Marcule's credit for the longboat but I'll let him weigh in on that. That'll save us a good bit on coin on the back and forth. But we need a more reliable source of food around Treborg, otherwise we're stuck sending Odds back and forth every so often to Stavanger.

The DM: As regards Embla's ability to translate the barrels into wealth, I'll retcon it if she doesn't return before you leave Stavanger. Have you considered haggling for the cost of the boat?

Vafrandir: I would like to but I can't do it personally.

The DM: Ah, I see. I thought I wrote this with an "unskilled" option. Oops. Memory isn't what it used to be. Okay. Let's call it here, until tomorrow. Any last items before we go?

Vafrandir: I think that's all for now. Hopefully we can get these logistical issues ironed out soon!

Vafrandir: Out.

The DM: Out.

The DM: In/Out. Sorry all. Stealth visit from my daughter and grandson. I'm afraid you just can't compete. Be well until tomorrow.

Pandred: I am personally affronted, and the damage to my self-esteem is immeasurable. Have fun!

What's Next

The DM: In.

The DM: I'm beginning to wonder if Embla is going to turn up any time soon to barter away the goods you have to sell. If you wish, you can take 40% of the coin-value I named for the items and let done be done. Marcule can also tell me if he wishes to take out a loan. Loans are 2% interest per month with a minimum of six months before they can be paid back (Renaissance practice).

Marcule: In

Marcule: (sorry for this late reply) I do not drink my potion.

Marcule: “I like the idea of the rowboat happy to put it on my credit if we would like to get it" just waiting to see how big of a loan to take.

Marcule: I approach the party with little bundles in my hands giving one to everyone this includes Oddstraken and Willa when we reach her. Each bundle contains bell (small), brass -- 3 in. by 3 in. diameter 0.37lbs. mirror (hand) -- 4 in. by 3 in., without frame 0.19lbs. fishhook, iron 1 in. long with ⅛ in. diameter 0.01lbs – 3 each. boatswain's pipe, tin whistle, 5 in. long, with 39 in. chain lanyard 0.04 “some items just to help everyone out”.

The DM: Willa has left the party; you can get a refund if you wish.

Vafrandir: In.

Vafrandir: Let's get the longboat (208 gp) - the rowboat is much smaller. I would like to sell the goods today. If Embla doesn't barter them by the time we're played out this afternoon, we'll take the 40%. Is that amenable?

Vafrandir: "Thank you, Marcule! These will be quite useful."

Marcule: The longboat sounds fine. I'm fine to wait and see about 40%.

The DM: I wanted to give a speed for the longboat. A familiar-looking rowboat sculls about 4-5 knots per hour; this is much bigger, but also has three sets of oars, so I'm going to judge the speed at 2½ knots up to a weight of 1 ton carried; 2 knots up to two tons carried; and 1½ knots up to one ton carried. I can't find numbers so far, but I will make changes if need be. The distance between Stavanger is 30 miles. A knot is 1.7 miles/hour. From what I can see, the current flowing against you is ½ mile per hour, so that your fastest speed will be 1.2*2.5, or 3 mph; the distance is 30 miles between Stavanger and Treborg.

The DM: I could get finer than that. Suppose we argue that these are the speeds for three men with 12 strength rowing, and that the speed can be adjusted 1% for every pt. of strength different. Vafrandir, Pandred (counts as 18) and Marcule have a combined strength of 50. This would make the longboat's speed 3.42 mph.

Vafrandir: How many hours of daylight do we have, roughly, at this time of year? An 8-10 hour trip is a full day, essentially.

Marcule: "Definitely a day."

The DM: You spend the 14th & 15th buying and arranging purchase of the boat. Sunrise is 4:24 am. Sunset is 10:52 pm.

Marcule: out

Present: DM, Embla, Vafrandir

Embla Strand In. I barter our tradegoods. Give me a minute to recall which we have and work out what we'll take for them.

The DM: This is tougher to do online than it would be at a game table; go ahead and trade the wine/ale/lutefisk for anything on the trading table; remember, at 90% of cost.

Embla Strand That gives us about 900gp for supplies. I'll get to shopping.

The DM: Too, remember, the heavier you buy, the slower the boat goes.

The DM: Out (for about an hour).

Embla Strand Could I use some of the barter funds to purchase the longboat? How do hunting dogs aid in hunting? How many chickens might I feed from a pony's feed ration? How much do chickens and hunting dogs weigh? Vafrandir, would you like chainmail or something heavier than the studded leather?

Vafrandir: I'll look at the numbers. I can (or should be able to) buy better armor but I don't have a super high carry so my AP would suffer greatly. Maybe one of you more experienced players can comment on the viability of fighting with 2-3 AP? Doesn't seem worth the extra protection.

Embla Strand Ringmail is only 5 more lbs than studded leather. We have a lot of money that we have to spend now and a significant weight limitation, so I'm trying to think of upgrades for everyone's stuff.

Vafrandir: Pushes me into 3 AP minimum. I'll think about it. For now I'll upgrade my helmet at least to iron, I've got the coin. I think the party funds might be well spent on intangibles. Our party size is significantly depleted: can we get get some more hirelings? Or otherwise put some coin towards our house upgrades? We need a steady source of food supplies at least. Not sure how to go about that.

Vafrandir: I've got a new chest (large) with 40 lb of food. Embla, if you'd like to fill it up with 110 lb more (110 gp, daily ration [travel]) we'll have a nice emergency stash.

Embla Strand I've tentatively purchased 500lbs of food and if I can get info on chicken feeding, we'll have two dozen chickens at the house, providing 2lbs-ish of eggs a day. We'd need to pay for a coop, but that shouldn't be too expensive. Hopefully between a hunting dog and my ability to hunt, we can bag some larger animals at home.

The DM: In.

The DM: Yes, you can use the barter funds to help purchase the longboat. I haven't written rules for hunting dogs; in any case, they'll require an amateur skill in dog training (10pts). Chickens don't require feed, except when raised in town. In a rural setting, they just scour the land itself, though on the trail they get eaten by foxes and such. Chickens weigh 5 lbs. A hunting dog weighs 60 lbs.

The DM: Vafrandir, the stride rules make fighting with 3 AP a more practical thing. You can move up to 8 hexes and still have room to fight. With 2 AP, however, all you can do is stand your ground. Good for a dungeon, bad in the wilderness.

Vafrandir: Great, Embla. Everyone, please let me know which items you plan to put into general storage so I can add them to the Cargo page.

Vafrandir: Very good re: 3 AP. In that case, Embla, I'll take the ringmail.

The DM: Studded leather and ring mail both provide the same AC. Ring mail is more durable. You can get hirelings, but it will take a week. You can buy cheaper food if you don't buy daily rations; see Town Market and Grocer. I'll have to figure the price of a coop. You'll need someone to hunt the eggs; you might want to get an extra house servant for that, rather than using Oddsdrakken, who is more of a travelling/purchasing servant. It will take only 3 days to get a house servant; I'll tentatively charge you 2 s.p. a month for one.

Embla Strand Thank you. I'm purchasing soap, 24 chickens, the longboat, 637lbs assorted food (cheese, beef jerky, dried haddock, and potatoes), chests for said food, 400ft rope for the boat, and a couple of equipment items for me. We've 300-ish gp left, so let's put everything y'all have bought on the tab so you can get your coin back. A house servant or two is an excellent idea. And I'll take the dog, then, as I should have the requisite dog training in a level or two.

Vafrandir: I'll work on adding the soap, chickens, food, chest, and rope to the Cargo sheet. A helmet, ring mail, and a longsword runs to 33 gp even, so you can subtract that. I'll let others weigh in on their needs for a bit.

The DM: Vafrandir, the 2-tons charge per human is the arbitrary cost for a character living and being an inconvenience on a ship. In your own boat, characters weigh exactly what they weigh. That should give you a lot more room. Embla, I should argue that a hunting dog will still be a "dog" ... you can start building a relationship with the dog now, even if you can't send it to hunt for you. A hunting dog will hunt randomly on its own, though not consistently.

The DM: Embla, if you want to hold back bartering a barrel or two of ale, you still have family here in Stavanger that you can leave it with for free. [OOC: My partner has a doctor's appt; we'll be going in half an hour]

Embla Strand In that case, I'll hold off on bartering all 3 ale barrels, as the 800ish gp from the wine barrel well-covers our expenses to-date.

The DM: OOPS. Ride's here. Gotta go now. Out.

Embla Strand Cya! In that case, I'll hold off on bartering all 3 ale barrels, as the 800ish gp from the wine barrel well-covers our expenses to-date. We've 162gp left. What else would folks like to purchase?

Vafrandir: Out-ish. Working on laying out the cargo we've got so far. I'll keep an eye on the page.

Vafrandir: How's this: 83 lb of cheese, 54 lb of beef jerky, 70 lb of haddock, 430 lb of potatoes (hey, they're the cheapest!). That's 30 gp, 14 sp. We'll need 5 chests for that.

Embla Strand As an addition? Sure.

Vafrandir: No, that's the 637 lb assorted food from above. I broke it out into individual items for pricing.

Embla Strand Since money isn't an object, I did a more even split to have nicer foods.

Vafrandir: What was the split? I'd like to put it on the page is all. We'll add it to what I just said.

Embla Strand 150lb cheese, 200lb jerky, 125lb haddock, 162lb potatoes.

Vafrandir: Great! So that's 10 chests (30 gp) and nearly 1300 lb of supplies. Should last for a good while, I reckon.

Vafrandir: Actually we can do it in 9 chests. 27 gp.

Vafrandir: Out.

Moving on from Stavanger, mid-June

The DM: In.

Vafrandir: In.

Vafrandir: Repeating from above: Everyone, please let me know which items you plan to put into general storage so I can add them to the Cargo page.

The DM: Starting with time. Vafrandir is raised on the 13th, and Embla barters for the price of the barrel of wine with a Rurik, a member of the town market; Rurik puts you in touch with his cousin who owns the longboat, while selling you the food; Rurik in turn makes deals to arrange for other items which could not normally be traded for a barrel of wine, so that we can maintain some momentum here and the players can obtain what they need. This all takes two days, leading us to the 15th of June. If the players want a servant, that will take us to the 18th. Otherwise, you can leave with your boat loaded on the morning of the 16th of June.

Vafrandir: (barring any action from the rest of the party) We will stay until the 18th to hire a servant.

The DM: You're doing the interviews, so is there any particular skillset or character-trait you're looking for? 17th century and there are no hiring practice guidelines, so feel free to be as politically incorrect as you like (heh). Seriously, though, you could save a great deal of trouble with your arms if you also search for a boat pilot (will cost you one more day of searching). One of the adjustments I'm trying to make to the pricing table is to add hireling costs (I finally figured out how to do that); but at present, any price I give you this month is a temporary patch. Remember that when you hire someone for starting on the 18th/19th, is to only pay them for 13/12 days of work.

Vafrandir: Trustworthiness, which is hard to gauge on first meeting. Since we already have met Rurik, I'll buy him a few ales at his convenience and see if he can recommend anyone. Since we're here for a few days, I'll make the same offer to Rurik's cousin, since he may know of a good pilot. The price shouldn't be an object after this month but we can deal with that when the price gets worked out.

Vafrandir: Foraging, hunting, or other agricultural skills would also be useful.

The DM: Then you don't want a house servant, you want a farmer? One who will manage storage of food and set out to gather more, yes? Said person will eat 4 lbs. of food per day (perhaps a farmer "skill" might be that they can live on less food?) and will make a plan to cultivate a crop of "spring oats", which can be planted July 1st to be ready for harvest in early-September. Yield is 4:1. Cost for seed oats is the same as for ordinary oats; which you won't find on your price list. Oats are 2 s.p. per lb, with 97 lbs. per acre required. An oats farmer will cost you 23 c.p. per month. Add foraging (10 c.p.) and hunting (60 c.p.) for your monthly cost.

Pandred: In. Two Healing Salves for me. Vafrandir, Marcule, don't forget you guys have both the wolf pelts.

Vafrandir: Can the farmer collect the eggs as well? That was the original desire for the house servant.

Vafrandir: What is the weight of the wolf pelt?

The DM: Collecting the egg cost would be included under foraging. A farmer would manage the chickens. An ordinary wolf pelt would weigh 16.5 oz.; these wolves were 2½ times as long as an ordinary wolf, so ... 16.11 lbs. I'll rule you can cut that down to 8 lbs. and yet retain the magic.

Vafrandir: That sounds like it covers the bases we want. Adding the foraging and hunting skills are the for same person, correct? I am fine with that if the others are. We can buy the seed here: I believe we have a quarter acre? so that's 24¼ lb of seed oats for 48 sp, 6 cp.

The DM: Yep. Add the costs together to get the person you want: farmer+forager+hunter. As a hunter, he/she (which do you want, or do you care?) will go out four times a month.

Vafrandir: Their sex makes no difference to me. Pandred, are you amenable to this hire?

Pandred: I'm on board.

Vafrandir: Let's do it. I'll remind Embla to deduct the costs. That's 93 cp/mo.

The DM: Hireling: female, Valda. Str 10, Int 10, Wis 10, Con 14, Dex 8, Chr 9. Neighbourly personality, gentle charm, low born perspective, robust, with tenacity and grit. Born in Stavanger, vaguely familiar to Pandred. Sky blue eyes, 154 lbs., 5 ft. 7 in., 24 years old, wheaten coloured hair, alabaster skin, born May 20th. Father was a farmer; possesses farmer, foraging and hunter sage abilities. Not levelled. 5 h.p.

The DM: What about a pilot? A pilot will cost you 4 s.p. per month; will spend non-required time maintaining the ship's boat. For fishing skill I'll charge the same as the hunting wage overtop of the pilot wage.

Vafrandir: Hmm. I'd like some more input from the others before moving on the pilot. I like the sound of it and they'd be useful to us.

Pandred: I'm on board. I'm also broke as of now, so my concerns turn to how we're gonna keep this wagon train rolling long-term.

Vafrandir: We have a good amount of burn with the coin we have now. Embla has the numbers. We can certainly hire Valda for a season and that addresses stable food supply. We also have the barrels of ale in case we need additional funds, not to mention Marcule's credit which we have yet to need.

Pandred: So be it! I'm ready to head back when you are.

The DM: So, yes?