Dramatis Personae
Beltin (Aasimar Dirge Bard/Cleric 11).
"Jake" aka Alex, the actual character name but I refuse to go back and edit the old entries (Human Wizard/Rogue 11).
The Smith (LN Half-Giant Aegis/Psychic Warrior 11).
Taking care of business, Session 15.1 - 9/26/14
Days 24-28
Several days pass with out a lot happening as the party takes care of some mundane business. In that downtime they decide their next course of action will be to investigate entry to Tsar itself and perhaps deal with the tar dragon who roams the wastes around the city. They plan to check out the other fortified location they heard about in the Dead Lands, the one nearer to Tsar than the dorf fortress.
For those with the Slumber Tsar book, it is "The Firebase of the Damned."
The rangers provide them an exact location, but seem ambivalent about helping in this endeavor. Regardless, from there they will have a better strategic position to gather intelligence. Jake decides to bring a large portion of his men with him to help secure the area. Now the party waits for the men to be outfitted before moving out.
Jake
Jake gets a letter from Samar at the Bard's Gate embassy asking for a meeting. It seems he wants to hire the Greed Elementals. Jake goes and they talk. After the disastrous first official caravan by the city through the Desolation failed (and the party's aid in that matter was greatly appreciated), some time was needed to regroup before making a second attempt. That prep work is almost finished and so it is time for another shot at opening official trade lines with the northern city of Parsantium.
And this is where Jake comes in. They need security. The best. And everyone knows that means the Greed Elementals, though no one has seen them in action; the rep their is mostly from the party. Samar and Jake negotiate and come to terms. Jake will provide 5 men and Bard's Gate will each 250 bits per day in the Desolation, which they agree would reasonable be 2 days each way, plus 25 bits for every day outside of it. They agree that the city will pay half of the Desolation pay in advance and the rest upon successful completion.
The deal is done and Jake leaves with 2,500 bits. Will his men get it now? Hell no, only if they come back. If they have issues with that they should have read the Geas Quest treated contract they already signed upon joining the guild more closely. Jake picks 5 of his better recruits and lets them know they leave in a few days time.
In the mean time he decides to get some gear made for his crew, and he approaches the Smith looking to get items made at cost instead of full market price. Smith says that the forge belongs to the Usurer so he is the one to talk to about such things. So he goes to the Usurer... yeah the Usurer isn't going to do that.
Resigned to the fact he is going to get gouged, Jake commissions 20 sets of masterwork weapons and armor, plus something all magical for Rorgingard, an Impact weapon. That empties his 20,000 guild credit line as well as a rather sizable chunk from his own. The Usurer thanks him for his business.
The night before they leave into the Desolation, Jake throws a feast and hires plenty of girls from the Moaning Whale. The men are in good spirits and some seem to think that they will have something like this before each trek into the wastes. Going into the wastes is awesome! Jake is happy to let them think both of those things are true; they will just have to be disappointed.
The Smith
The Smith continues to work for the Usurer and the Usurer is very pleased. He even gives him an incredibly stale loaf of bread he had laying around when the Smith asks for food to go with hid lodgings, the dirt floor next to the forge.
The Smith carries out the Usurer's forge orders and each piece he makes it a masterpiece, though some aren't good enough. Anything created with less than a 40 craft check goes back into the scrap pile, and the Usurer watches and makes mental notes of Smith's techniques and dedication to perfection.
Note: The Smith now has a special bonus on crafting. Any masterwork item he creates with a craft check of 45 or better (i.e. him rolling a 15+ right now) is actually treated as magic for the purposes of further enchanting and bypassing DR.
While working, Smith contemplates the question Beltin asked him and the day after their meeting he approaches him and they talk. He asks why Beltin uses undead and Beltin explains they are simply the tools of his trade, they are his strength. Smith says this is a good answer, but has one more concern: Are they simply flesh and bone are is the soul of the creature bound as well? Beltin assures him that his menagerie is only cold, rotting flesh and bone, and the Smith is fine with that.
The Smith joins the party!
From there he spends the next several days again mostly crafting, this time fulfilling Jake's extensive order. He spends some time away from the forge, including going briefly to Jake's party, but such things bore him and again seeks solace in the act of fiery creation.
In one of his outings he gets food by approaching a vendor whose ancient cart had a broken wheel; it was essentially a permanent non-moving structure by this point. Smith told him he would fix it and the man would give him food. Note, he told him, he didn't ask him. Smith did it quickly and skillfully and then stared at the man. Intimidate check? Made it. The man decides to just go with strange half-giants barter system and starts slowly pushing food towards him.
He starts with only a few days worth of trail rations, but Smith just keeps staring, so eventually the man hands him a bag of several weeks worth just to get him to leave. The Smith says he is thirsty. The vendor tells him about the Dancing Bear, a place across town and far away from him and gives directions. The Smith goes.
Once there, Smith looks for anything that needs fixing and spots one of the taps is slightly bent. He pulls up several stools at the bar, fixes the tap, and then asks for water for his services. Floyd is amused and gives him a glass of water. The Smith drinks it and then gets up to leave. Floyd gives him a pitch about the fine alcoholic beverages the Bear provides and says that perhaps he would be interested for next time. The Smith is not. He leaves.
Back to forging and so goes his down time.
Beltin
Without Lucky to talk to, Beltin finds himself rather lost. He decides to invest in more real estate, this time something pricier for the high roller adventurers/high ranking crusaders. He remembers the work he and Augustine did on the jail, and he goes and recruits Augustine again.
Agustine is his usual happy self, but is more excited than usual to see Beltin again so soon. He asks if this is to do with the summoning? Did something happen? Did Jake get eaten alive and die horribly? He is so excited at the thought. Beltin says no, and explains his high value property creation plans. Augustine loves making things. He is in.
They spend the next few days making large, innately (and tastefully, insists Beltin; no scenes of death, to Augustin's disappointment) decorated stone homes through many ritualized castings of Stone Shape. In each Augustin creates a hidden area with a shrine to Nerull; one in a concealed room under an incredibly heavy stone bed frame, one in a secret room in a closest, etc. Beltin decides he will not showcase those areas to his potential buyers.
Dice are rolled and in the down time they managed to make 6 of these homes. Another roll says Beltin is able to "sell" them all to high ranking crusaders. Secretly, hidden in legalese in the sales contract, each home reverts to Beltin in the case of the "owner's" death. As each crusader only used the same lawyer, only one roll was allowed versus the deceitful wording in the contract and he failed. Yay, shady business practices!
Beltin makes a few thousand bits and life is good. Unfortunately the market for such homes is very limited, so it's not a source of in-come he can tap often, at least not yet. He needs to make sure he doesn't flood the market after all. He now considers making a gated community or maybe time shares... Beltin may yet become a real estate tycoon.
To be continued...
